Winning the Champions League would change ‘the narrative’ around Manchester City’s success under Pep Guardiola, according to Kevin
City head to Spain this afternoon possessing a one-goal lead from last week’s thriller ahead of Wednesday’s second leg of their semi-final with Real Madrid.
Victory in the Bernabeu would seal consecutive finals for the Premier League champions and De Bruyne believes the team are ready to go all the way.
‘I think winning it would change the perspective from outside,’ De Bruyne said. ‘The fact we’ve been fighting for numerous years and getting to the latter stages means we’ve been doing really well.
‘We’ve not won it yet and that will probably be the only criticism we can get. Winning it would change that little narrative.’
City met Real in the 2016 semi-final but were limp in the Spanish capital, losing 1-0. Guardiola then oversaw exits in the last-16 and quarter-finals in his first four years in charge before last season’s run to the final.
‘As a player you want to win trophies and we want to win this one,’ De Bruyne added. ‘It’s a cup competition and the quality is very high so it’s very difficult to win it but in the end if you look back at the way we performed over the years we have done really well.
‘We’ve been there loads of times and always fighting to win this competition so the consistency that we’ve had has been amazing – pretty much as good as everybody else. We just need to try to get over the line. Tomorrow is another step.
‘If we are a little bit below that there is the possibility that Madrid can win this game because they are also one of the best teams in the world. The quality they have is amazing.
‘I back my team to perform at the level that is necessary to win that game tomorrow. We will try to get the best out of ourselves to do a good showing and hopefully progress to Paris.’
City were handed a boost with Kyle Walker among the travelling party to ease their defensive issues, although John Stones remains sidelined.
