Champions League: Man City win group, Man Utd second behind Juve

Pep Guardiola on why his Manchester City side have found it more difficult in Champions League games rather than Premier League matches this season: "The teams are so good. The quality in Europe is so high. The managers are so good and the best teams in Europe are here.They play better and they have more quality so it is more difficult because the opponents are better.

"Everyone has good teams so some big, big teams have gone out. Inter Milan are an exceptional team but they are in the Europa League. In one day you sleep a little bit and you will be in the Europa League, so that is why I am so, so glad to be in the last 16."

Strong criticism from Darren Fletcher to end the night. Everyone looking forward to Sunday's game now?!

Manchester United are not drilled enough, they don't have enough patterns so to go and do that, to play Liverpool in an open game, would be suicidal.

The last two seasons at Anfield have been 0-0 and that has shown United sitting back, being hard to beat, looking to nick opportunities on the counter-attack or from set-pieces but not through taking the game to Liverpool.

Jose Mourinho will be fully aware of Liverpool's strengths, nullifying them, sitting deep, not giving them space behind, not letting them win the ball in turnovers in dangerous areas. All that will be ruled out.

It will be instructions to play in Liverpool's half, missing midfield out. You will probably see Nemanja Matic and Marouane Fellaini and pace either side of Romelu Lukaku.

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola speaking to BT Sport: "We are in the best 16 and now we are going to see the draw, and arrive at the right moment.

"We started flat because Hoffenheim were so demanding about how they attacked the space and physically they were stronger. Then we started to play. But the result is good - we are first.

"Sane was aggressive. The first goal was incredible but the second was lucky because the control was not quite good, but he finished."

About the counter-attack which failed to result in a goal: "We are young. People in the attack are 21, 22 years old. You need more calm. But it's OK, we are satisfied."

On Phil Foden: "He was incredible. We don’t have any doubts about his quality. He has to compete with David Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin de Bruyne etc but he can do everything. He is a fighter, can score goals, has the body shape. He is only 18 years old. We didn't have any doubts that he can play at the top level."

It wasn't a dead rubber for Manchester United because they have Liverpool on Sunday and some of the players that played aren't in the team. There were question marks over them.

Now it feels like players who should have a point to prove have come back in and it's kind of back to square one, it was slow, lethargic, disjointed. Defenders were sitting back and it doesn't work like that - it's a hindrance on the team because they are not up the pitch far enough to support the play. They then end up so deep it invites pressure and they concede goals.

It took Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard to show some endeavour to go and press and lift the team.

Pep Guardiola says that John Stones had a knee injury in the first half, which is why he was replaced, but it "is no big deal."

Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann after his side finished bottom of Group F with three draws and three defeats: "I don’t think three points sums up our position completely. We would have gone further if we had got the points we should have done.

"As newcomers to this competition, we have learnt a lot, we have played well in the tournament and come back several times in games. We have done a lot for this club and hope there will be more of this in the future."

Nagelsmann is leaving the club at the end of the season to take over at another Bundesliga outfit, RB Leipzig.

He smiled when he was asked what his successor would learn from his side’s performances in Europe and said: “You are asking the wrong person."

It's not as if there aren't enough good players at Manchester United. You could make an argument that there are not enough good defenders at the very highest level, particularly in the centre.

I always felt Manchester United should be up around third place and it's a real surprise they have not managed to do it.

Someone like Toby Alderweireld might have been probably good enough to do that. It's amazing how much somebody like that can do because it just settles everyone else around them.

You probably only need one top centre-back to be able to do that and Jose Mourinho needed a top quality centre-back.

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Mark Adamson: I know Bayern aren't the side of recent years but the fact Ajax have played them twice and remained unbeaten is still impressive. Could cause an upset in the next round

Is that job done?

More from Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho:

"This is not about Liverpool [on Sunday] today, this is about Champions League. I don't know why you bring it up. We go to every match with the intention to win, sometimes you do sometimes you don't but the intention is always the same.

"Tonight it is job done in a difficult group, I don't think we were brilliant in this group phase, but with the problems we had and the injuries we had we manged to come here already qualified."

Hoffenheim boss Julian Nagelsmann: “I’m proud of the way we have played in the Champions League.

“As a newcomer to the Champions League, we’ve played well. We’ve done a lot for the club and we hope to do more of this in the future.”

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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, speaking to BT Sport:

"I think we were too passive in the first half. We were quite comfortable with the ball but not in intensity and ambition. In the second half I was pretty sure that after speaking at half time things could be different but we started with an own goal that gave Valencia a better position to control the game.

"I made the two changes later and the team improved immediately, we started playing faster, arriving with link play in more dangerous positions, and we probably should get to 2-2 because we had a couple of good chances to equalise. But we started the first half playing too comfortable and not with enough intensity."

Dave Payn: Two dark horses for me in that last 16, Lyon and Porto

There is no doubt that some of these Manchester United defenders are capable but they need that figurehead, that leader who could guide them.

A top class centre-half like Virgil van Dijk has accelerated the progress of players at Liverpool.

When he's not there they look questionable and that's the difference that one top centre half can have.

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Manchester City winger Leroy Sane on BT Sport: "We had some good moments, we made life hard for ourselves but it was a really good game. I was thinking of whether to shoot or not from the free-kick, it was quite a distance. It was quite lucky.

"We had enough chances in the second half to make the game quiet, I don't know what happened with the three-on-one, I passed it to Bernardo Silva and he had a tap-in...I wanted an assist!"

Once Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Ashley Young came on they added something down the left.

I talked about those midfield combinations at half time and they added to that with their energy and pace. But they didn't start playing until those players came on.

If they had played like that from the first minute they would have won the game for me and topped the group. It was too little too late.

Jon: I don’t think you could get me to watch the game this Sunday if you paid me a million pounds. If Man Utd play like we did tonight and it’ll be a cricket score.

Steve: Clear to see that Jose Mourinho went into this game with the mindset that Juve would win and had already settled for second. This club used to strive for nothing but first but not Anymore. Awful performance.

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Hoffenheim's European adventure is over - this defeat means they finished bottom of Group F, without a win - but the raw statistics do not do their brilliantly entertaining style justice, or their fans (obviously).

They scored and conceded in every European game they played this season, and from watching them tonight you can see why.

The German side's fans were boisterous before, during, and after the game tonight and the players have just been over to show their appreciation.They ended up applauding each other, which was quite fitting.