Manchester City defender Gael Clichy believes that City can achieve greatness this year if they continue to play as they did in last night’s crucial Champions League group game against AS Roma.
A Samir Nasri blast and a late Pablo Zabaleta finish put City into the last 16 of Europe’s premier competition for only the second time.
However after a slow start to their European campaign this term, Clichy is confident that wins over Bayern Munich and Roma are a sign of things to come for the Premier League champions.
Clichy said: “Tonight we showed the quality is there and the focus is back. We have to keep working because this is just the start.
“When we play like this we can only be confident, and we can do great things this year, but what we did tonight was unbelievable.”
The win over Roma was City’s sixth consecutive victory in all competitions – a run which started with coming from behind to beat Swansea City.
“The last three or four weeks we see the real team who won the Premier League last year,” the 29-year-old added.
“The turning point was against Swansea. We came back from the international break more determined to win games.
“Since then we haven’t looked back, and of course Bayern Munich was a big game too.”
James Milner also cut a confident figure after City’s win, achieved without four key players – Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, and David Silva – in the starting line-up.
Milner said: “The pressure was really on, but we showed the quality that was in the squad.
“We started the season slowly and the Champions League didn’t get off to the best of starts, this team and this club needs to be in the latter stages of the Champions League.
“The quality is there to go far in this competition. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” said the 28-year-old midfielder.
The Manchester club will find out their last 16 opponents when the draw takes place on Monday December 15 at 11am.
As group runners-up they will face either Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid, AS Monaco FC, Borussia Dortmund, FC Barcelona, or FC Porto.
Image courtesy of JD Sports via YouTube, with thanks.
