Manchester City's hopes of progressing from Champions League Group A suffered a serious blow as an Edinson Cavani brace gave Napoli a 2-1 victory at the Stadio San Paolo. Cavani put the hosts in front with a deft touch as City were left stunned after a clinical set piece, but Mario Balotelli drew his side level with a predatory finish in the 33rd minute to restore parity. City were thwarted again as Cavani doubled his tally and restored his side's advantage with a composed finish just after the break, and there were jubilant scenes in Naples as the Italian side usurped Mancini's men in the race to join Bayern Munich in qualifying from the group stages. Balotelli, who had scored eight goals in his last nine appearances for City, partnered Edin Dzeko in attack with Sergio Aguero confined to the bench, while Nigel de Jong got the nod ahead of Gareth Barry for a midfield berth. A cloud of smoke covered the field as City controlled possession to a chorus of boos early on, but the frenzied atmosphere was in stark contrast to the subdued start on the field. City settled quickly and controlled much of the early possession, but the danger was immediately clear as Napoli looked to hit their opponents on the counter-attack with pace and potency. No sooner had Balotelli curled a precise shot agonisingly wide of the far post after being afforded far too much space on the edge of the Napoli box in the seventh minute, City were almost caught on the break as Hamsik headed straight at Joe Hart just seconds later. City were left stunned in the 17th minute as Ezequiel Lavezzi swung over a devilish delivery to the near post and Cavani stole in to glance the ball with a faint touch past Hart. To the visitors' credit, they continued to surge forward in their droves, clearly undeterred by the setback, and Mancini's side were level just after the half hour mark. Salvatore Aronica made a complete hash of an attempted clearance inside the Napoli box, and David Silva's initial shot was only parried by Morgan De Sanctis into the path of the opportunistic Balotelli, who side-footed home from close range. City ended the half the brighter, and almost netted a second on the stroke of half-time as Silva took a raking diagonal pass from Balotelli into his stride with a sublime touch, before finding the overlapping Pablo Zabaleta, whose low drive was saved superbly by De Sanctis. Balotelli looked to be unwell as he trudged off for the break, but the Italian nonetheless emerged for the restart as City almost immediately found themselves firmly under the cosh. Andrea Dossena made a lung-busting run to get to the left byline, and his precise cut back to Cavani found the Uruguayan in space with the forward finishing clinically from inside the City box to restore his side's lead just four minutes after the break. A quick free-kick from Silva just after the hour mark saw the Spaniard dink a delightful delivery to the back post, but neither Balotelli nor Dzeko were able to latch on to the ball with their late runs. The play continued to lurch from one end to the other as both sides committed bodies forward, and Napoli almost capitalised on the open nature of the game as Lavezzi got in behind Zabaleta, only to have his shot brilliantly blocked by Hart. Samir Nasri, Sergio Aguero and Adam Johnson were all introduced as late attacking changes from Mancini, but it was Napoli who came closest to adding to their tally as Marek Hamsik took a raking pass from Cavani down into his stride and beat Hart with a snap shot which cruelly rebounded off the post. Balotelli twice went close in the final stages of the match as De Sanctis denied the Italian, smothering the ball superbly, before the forward headed over the bar in profligate fashion from Nasri's cute cross out on the right. Napoli clung on to their slender advantage to close out a crucial victory which sees the Italian side leapfrog City into second spot in Group A with Bayern Munich having already sealed their qualification as Mancini's City were left to bemoan a chastening defeat which could spell the end of their Champions League campaign.