Bernardo Silva admits there is pressure on Manchester City to beat Atletico Madrid and keep their dream of finally winning the Champions League alive.
City have never won the Champions League, and fell agonisingly short last season in their first appearance in the final. They have reacted well to that disappointment this year by topping a group including Paris Saint-Germain, and progressing to the quarter-finals where they face Atletico Madrid.
According to midfielder Bernardo Silva, City are stronger than they have ever been in Europe, but cannot be considered favourites this season and must rise to the pressure in their two legs with Atletico.
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"It's not just another game, it's a very important game for us," he said, promising that the squad will give everything to win the trophy this season.
"It's a competition that maybe just Scott Carson won. Pep as well but the club has never won it. Most of us have never won it. We really want to do it. Over the years we weren't able to do it, it is the only one missing and we want to go for it again. The pressure is always there and we know these fans always expect us to perform well in this competition and we're going to try our best to make our fans happy and proud of us.
"Of course yes [it's annoying] because we know how important this competition is. It's where the best clubs in Europe play. We really want to do it. We weren't able to do it in the past years. The best we can do is try harder and harder and this year we're going to try very hard.
"It's definitely a goal. It's a thing that we really want to achieve if we are going to achieve - nobody knows. The only thing we can promise to our fans and the club is we're going to do our best and try as hard as we can to achieve that. Of course it is something that we really want.
"There is nothing more we can do apart from being our best and working hard every day, helping each other to win as many titles as possible."
City have found various different ways to exit the Champions League from strong positions in recent years under Pep Guardiola, and Bernardo says the Blues have emerged stronger from all those disappointments.
"The team that I see today is a much well-prepared team for these kind of moments and games," he explained.
"We were a great team five seasons ago but I think the team is much better prepared for these moments than it was five years ago. There has definitely been an improvement. It comes with experience. We have our disappointments, we learn from that and this year I think the team is very well prepared to do well in this competition.
"We know each other better. The first year we were together a lot of new players had just come to the club, the manager only had one year with the team. now it has been five or six years most of us have been with him. We know everything we have to do in every phase of the game.
"We know what the team needs when we concede or score, we know what to do in the good or bad moments. It comes with experience. We keep learning from our mistakes and that's a good thing.
"It's difficult to say who are the favourites in this competition. Look at the last few years we were favourites against Chelsea and we lost. We were favourites against Tottenham and we lost. When we played against Lyon, we were beaten. It's not easy. It's a team that is so used to playing these types of games. They've been to two Champions League finals in the last few years, they're always there in the quarter-finals and semi-finals so I don't think there are any favourites in this game.
"I don't think it is anxiety [to win the trophy] but pressure. Pressure to win is nice because it means you're in a great club fighting for everything. It is pressure that we want because we want to win those competitions. Atletico are a great side also, I'm sure they have that same thing.
"There is lots of pressure from the fans to continue to win. They are the champions of Spain and they also have to do well in the Champions League. There is lots of pressure on both sides but we are players used to this pressure and we will manage it really well."
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