Manchester City: Manuel Pellegrini upbeat about City's Champions League chances

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes that the Citizens can win the Champions League following their 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad stadium. The Capital One Cup winners won the tie 3-2, having held the French Champions to a 2-2 draw in Paris, thus making their first inroad to the semi-finals of Europe's most coveted club competition.

Kevin de Bruyne's goal was the difference between the two sides as City ruled an unlikely win over PSG, who won the Ligue 1 title in record time this season. Real Madrid are the other team to have already confirmed progression while Bayern Munich will pit their wits against Benfica in the second leg. Meanwhile, Barcelona have an away game against Atletico Madrid, having won the home tie at the Camp Nou 2-1.

City have had success against Bayern in the past and should they be pitted against each other in the semi-finals, Pellegrini will have the opportunity to face-off against Pep Guardiola, who is set to take over from the Chilean after the end of the season. However, the manager will be wary of drawing Barcelona yet again, having had the misfortune of bowing out to them on the last two occasions in the knockout stages.

"Of course we can be the best team in Europe," Pellegrini said, when asked if his team can beat the best in Europe."Of course because I think it is one of the targets of this club, to try and improve every year [in this competition]. I know that we receive a lot of criticism for different reasons, but I think that we are improving every year."

"One of the targets is to win, of course, some day the Champions League. Of course, this season, next season. If you are in the semi-final, you know you have to play against a very big team of Europe, but playing in the way we did tonight I think that we played better than Paris Saint-Germain. That is a very strong team with very good players. We have a lot of trust that we can play against anyone in the way we played," he added.