Doku adamant Man City still have plenty to play for after Champions League exit

Manchester City's elimination from the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid represents a significant inflection point for the club's 2025-26 season and carries broader implications for European investors evaluating Premier League football assets. The 5-1 aggregate defeat—capped by a 2-1 second-leg loss at the Etihad Stadium on disciplinary grounds—marks the first time in five seasons that Pep Guardiola's side has failed to advance beyond the last-16 stage of Europe's premier club competition. The defeat arrives amid a cluster of setbacks that underscore mounting competitive pressure on City's domestic dominance. Trailing Arsenal by nine points in the Premier League standings, the club now faces the mathematical reality that their vaunted attacking prowess—which has generated substantial commercial value and broadcasting revenues—faces genuine vulnerability against elite continental opposition. This represents a meaningful departure from the tactical narrative that has defined City's commercial positioning to European sponsors and institutional investors. The circumstances of City's exit warrant closer examination. Bernardo Silva's controversial red card for handball during the second leg introduced an element of fortune into the narrative, yet this cannot obscure the substantive quality gap demonstrated across both fixtures. Real Madrid's composed performance, particularly the clinical 3-0 victory at the Bernabéu,