James Milner is clear that Manchester City have to prove themselves in the Champions League, with the midfielder stating winning the competition is the target.
Manuel Pellegrini’s team face Bayern Munich in Bavaria in Wednesday’s opening Group E fixture having reached the knockout phase last season for the first time.
Asked how the European Cup is viewed at City, Milner said: “It means a lot. When I first started at the club it was new to us as a club, new to us as a team. Players had played in it before, but it’s completely different when you’re playing in it as a group. So I think year on year we should get better and we’ll keep on improving, the more experience we have as a group in the Champions League.
“There are a lot of games we’ve played now, a lot that we have learned over the years we’ve been in it and I think having won the Premier League a couple of times and been fortunate enough to win every trophy domestically, we want to prove ourselves on the European stage and I believe we have a good enough team to do that.
“I think being the club that we are, and with the players we have, winning it is the ultimate aim. But you never get too far ahead – you look at it a game at a time and start then.”
City lost 3-1 to Bayern in the corresponding game of last year’s group stage before Milner scored the winner in the 3-2 victory in the return. Of that match at the Allianz Arena last December, Milner said: “We started the game terribly. I think the first 15 minutes we were 2-0 down and, playing against the European champions, I don’t think there’s many teams who would have come back from that – it would have been game done – but that shows the character and the quality we have in the squad, and to have that mental strength to come back and win the game is massive.
Milner added: “I was just hanging out at the back post. I think it might have been Jesús [Navas] who got down the right, put a cross in and it found its way through to me and I just managed to curl it in the far corner I think, which is something we do a lot in training. I do have to train a lot, with practice for the keepers, with the coaches, and it was a first-time finish.”