Mario Mandzukic scored the only goal of an entertaining game in the 18th minute, and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon did well to prevent City from levelling.
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With top spot still up for grabs in Group D, Juve will leapfrog their rivals into first place with a two-point lead if they can secure a victory.
Since they first featured in the tournament in 2011-12, City have been knocked out of the group stage twice and eliminated in the last 16 stage against Barcelona in the past two seasons.
Manuel Pellegrini’s club will finish off their group stage play against Borussia Monchengladbach on December 8 and still have a chance to beat Juventus for the top spot in the group.
“We qualified (for the last 16) in the last two years and were very unlucky to get the same draw against Barcelona”, Pellegrini told a news conference on Tuesday.
“We tried to dominate the game and I am not unhappy the way we played because this is not an easy team or stadium to come to, but it is not the result we wanted”.
He said: “I think that we finished with the game – that very bad game that we played on Saturday – on Sunday morning”.
That point leaves Juventus in second place but they have a healthy advantage over Sevilla in third, meaning that even if they get beaten here, they will only need to avoid defeat on their final outing in Spain. It is more important to think about the future. “If he can play it is better for us”.
Prior to their defeat to Liverpool, City enjoyed a nine-game unbeaten run which included seven wins. They have won Serie A four years in a row and reached the Champions League final last season. City had no issues taking six points off of Sevilla in the back-to-back games.
“If you look at the template for qualifying at the top of the group, you don’t lose a home game, so losing that one put a lot of pressure on us”.
Pellegrini said it had not taken long for City to get the Liverpool result out of their system. A win will give them a chance at topping the group, which is a major advantage going into the knockout phase of the elite European competition.
City spurned a great chance in a bright start to the second half when Fernando rose above the Juve defence at a corner to fire in a header which Buffon turned onto the post and then smothered while under pressure from Martin Demichelis.
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“In the last few Champions Leagues we have maybe not had the experience, maybe some players did not know what it was to play in the Champions League”.
