(Reuters) – Manchester City will have to win the Champions League to identify themselves as European powers, defence Kyle Walker said.
City has won four Premier League titles in the past decade, but has failed to advance beyond the Champions League semi-finals in this period.
Pep Guardiola’s appearance has eliminated Real Madrid thirteen times in the last 16 games and is a firm favourite ahead of Saturday’s quarter-final match against Olympique Lyonnais.
“I think if you’d asked me two years ago when I signed here, I probably would have said the Premier League is the first not to have won it before,” Walker said to the club’s online page on Thursday.
“Now I’ve put in combination two and several others and that’s the one I want. I can speak for the whole team and for Manchester City so they want to put them on that next pedestal.”
The 30-year-old English foreigner has warned of his appearance to forget about Lyon, which overflows with confidence after knocking out Serie A champion Juventus in the last round.
“Lyon has players. Knocking out Juventus says a lot. You have to be a very, very disciplined team to beat Juventus in two rounds,” he added.
Reporting through Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Edited through Michael Perry
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