Soccer:Vincent Kompany believes Manchester City's players can now concentrate properly on securing qualification to the knockout stages after making their long-awaited Champions League debut.

City’s first appearance in the competition, marking a return to Europe’s elite for the first time in 43 years, was heralded as a significant step in the club’s recent history. However, expectations were tempered in last night’s 1-1 draw at home to Napoli when Roberto Mancini’s side had to come from behind to secure a point through Aleksandar Kolarov’s 75th-minute free-kick.

Mancini admitted afterwards the occasion may have stirred up a few nerves, but skipper Kompany is already looking ahead. “The first game is out of the way now and we can focus on getting out of the Group. From then on we have as much of a chance as everyone else.

“I don’t think we played in a bad way. We were 1-0 down against a good, strong Italian team and we came back to 1-1 and still had chances to score. Napoli proved that many teams can cancel themselves out and Villarreal (who lost 2-0 at home to Bayern Munich in Group A’s other game) will take points off people.

“If you play in the Champions League people expect you to win at home but I guess the trick is to put yourself back into situations where you put pressure on yourselves to win games.”