Pep Guardiola’s side are top of the group and were heading into the next phase, until 10-man Hoffenheim came from 2-0 down and scored a 92nd-minute equaliser to draw 2-2 with Lyon.
But City will qualify as group winners with one game to spare if they beat Lyon in France on Tuesday, 27 November.
“Unfortunately we haven’t qualified, but we are so close and will try to maintain this level,” said Guardiola.
“The fact it’s not done will make sure we will focus on the competition. It was another excellent performance, the team attacked very well. We have not qualified but made a good step to finishing first in the group phase.”
This season’s European campaign started badly for City with a 2-1 home defeat by Lyon and they then conceded in the opening minute of their second game against Hoffenheim.
However, City fought back to win that match 2-1 and this latest victory has put them on the brink of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League for a sixth successive season.
They dominated against the Ukrainians as a hat-trick from Gabriel Jesus, including a bizarre penalty, and goals from David Silva, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling gave City a 6-0 win, eclipsing their 5-0 away success against Steaua Bucharest in the first leg of a play-off tie in August 2016.
“After the first game against Lyon, we were then down against Hoffenheim, so the situation was so dangerous but since then we have got three wins and we still need more points to get to the next stage,” added Guardiola.
The Spaniard won the Champions League twice as a coach with Barcelona and is hoping to repeat that with City this year after taking them to the last 16 in 2016-17 and then the quarter-finals last season.
City captain Silva opened the scoring with a tap-in after Mahrez had twisted to create space for a low cross, before the hosts doubled their lead in strange circumstances.
Sterling fell over as he kicked the ground under no challenge and referee Viktor Kassai wrongly awarded the penalty, which Jesus converted for the first of his three goals.
There was no doubt about City’s third goal as Sterling ran at the visiting defence and curled a shot past goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov from the edge of the penalty area.
