Vincent Kompany believes Manchester City must now beat both Roma and Bayern Munich if they are to qualify for the Champions League's knockout stages.
The Premier League champions could only draw 1-1 with the Serie A side at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, meaning they have taken a solitary point from their first two fixtures.
And while they have a double header against CSKA Moscow next, captain Kompany is already looking forward to the last two games in the group, when Bayern visit Manchester and then City play in the Stadio Olimpico.
The Belgium international feels his side have no margin for error now and thinks his team will have to defeat both of the group favourites.
He told reporters: "You are probably looking at the Roma return game and the Bayern game and we really hope that we can get the six points. It's imperative we win those games.
"Winning won't just open up the door for second place but first place as well. I don't think you can really aim for second place but if we get into contention to go to the next round we'll be very close to first place."
City have already dropped more points in the Champions League than they did last year, as Kompany accepted.
"We got 15 points out of 18 last season," he added. "We've happened to fall into quite hard groups. This was tough -- there is nothing more difficult or special than the Champions League."
For the third time in four years, City were given a tough draw. They finished third in a group featuring Bayern, Napoli and Villarreal in 2011-12 and propped up a pool with Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and Ajax the following season.