In the end, there was a satisfactory outcome for Manchester City, and Roberto Mancini will hope it is the same tomorrow when he is due to meet Carlos Tevez for the first time since the Argentinian went public with his wish for a transfer. Before heading for the airport the City manager confirmed Tevez would play against Everton on Monday. "Why not?" he asked.

Mancini also made it clear that he would seek a swift conclusion to the dispute with City's leading scorer, though he will be praying he is back in time for the meeting after the team's plane was stranded in Turin last night. "It's important we finish it quickly," he said. "I haven't had this situation before but it could happen at any club, in England or Italy, and I want to speak to him to understand what he wants to do. We do not want it to continue like this and I think this can finish in the next two days."

It promises to be a challenging 48 hours but Mancini was a happy man as he left the Stadio Olimpico, threatening to strike one journalist with his microphone when the subject returned to Tevez, and proclaiming his satisfaction with his team's performance. Jô's 77th-minute equaliser ensures they qualify for the next stage as group winners – an achievement that, in theory, should carry its rewards when the draw is made in Switzerland tomorrow.

Niccolò Giannetti's goal, late in the first half, had opened up the possibility that Mancini's team could finish as runners-up to Lech Poznan and potentially face one of the four stronger teams to drop down from the Champions League. Yet City's travelling supporters were rewarded for braving the sub-zero temperatures when Jô scored with a clinical left-foot drive from Adam Johnson's pass.

The Brazilian seemed to have already scored what should have been a legitimate equaliser only for his close-range effort to be disallowed for offside and, in terms of creating chances, the draw was the least that City deserved on a night when there were vast expanses of empty seats inside this old stadium and little to remind us why Juventus are one of the great names of European football. There was also another demonstration of some of the most disreputable aspects of Italian football culture when a section of fans aimed monkey noises at Patrick Vieira, a returning former Juventus player.

Tevez was absent here because City had qualified and Mancini had decided to leave most of his first-team picks in Manchester. This was an evening for experimentation, with Micah Richards captaining the side, Shay Given recalled in place of Joe Hart and a frontline of Jô and Alex Nimely, a 19-year-old making his first start.

City had the more penetrative edge in the opening exchanges, Richards close to setting up Jô inside the first minute and Alex Manninger, with a full-length save, preventing Mohamed Sissoko from scoring an own goal.

Yet City still had to cope with the enduring quality of Alessandro Del Piero and, shortly before half-time, this wonderfully talented footballer, now 36, evaded Richards inside the penalty area. His low cross picked out Giannetti, darting in front of Dedryck Boyata to divert the ball past Given with a clever finish off the outside of his boot.

There were long spells, though, when Juventus seemed to be merely going through the motions and City were the stronger side for the last halfhour. As well as Jô's disallowed goal, Mancini was convinced they should have been awarded a penalty when a Shaun Wright-Phillips shot struck the defender Giorgio Chiellini's arm.

Shortly afterwards Johnson, increasingly prominent as the game wore on, slipped a pass into Jô and the striker took one touch to open an angle for himself to drive a low shot into the bottom left corner of Manninger's goal. "We want to go all the way," Mancini said afterwards – and that means with Tevez.