Roberto Mancini was pleased with the way his Manchester City players responded to going a goal down as they hit back to beat Aston Villa 3-1 sat Eastlands.

The result, coupled with Tottenham's 1-0 win over Bolton Wanderers, means Wednesday's crunch clash with Harry Redknapp's side is almost certain to determine who finishes fourth and qualifies for next season's Champions League.

Villa cannot now finish in the top four, but it all looked so different for Martin O'Neill's men when John Carew gave them the lead.

However, City hit back to lead 2-1 at the interval thanks to a penalty by Carlos Tevez and an Emmanuel Adebayor goal before Craig Bellamy sealed the victory with a late third.

Mancini admitted after the match:"I think we must beat Tottenham. It will be a massive game and we need all the supporters. It will be a fantastic game on Wednesday.

"The players played a good game after going 1-0 down. After Villa scored we continued to play well and scoring two goals before the end of the first half was most important.

"It was a difficult game as Aston Villa are a good team and they are not an easy team to play against."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email