Pep Guardiola has admitted he has seen a “transformation in mentality” at Manchester City which stands them in good stead as they bid to retain their Champions League crown this season.
City return to knockout European action on Tuesday evening when they travel to Copenhagen for the first leg of their last-16 tie.
Guardiola guided City to the club’s first Champions League triumph last season when they secured a fabled Treble, and the manager said that the belief around the organisation has shifted on the back of reaching two finals and one semi-final in the past three seasons.
“We challenge ourselves and challenge the opponents to want to beat you,” he said. “We feel it more than ever in the Premier League and in the Champions League we want to do it again.
“We have good characters and personalities in the team with how they react in the bad moments. When I arrived eight years ago I had the feeling maybe this competition was too much for us, but our defeats and bad moments helped us to grow up and be in the position we are — two finals and one semi-final in the last three years — and the whole club has awareness that we can try to be ourselves.
“Before, I felt: ‘are you sure Pep, are we ready to do it?’ Now the whole organisation believes we can do it. This is the best legacy that we give to the club and to the team that Man City can compete. That is so good.”
Nathan Ake concurred with his manager and added that the appetite among the players remains just as insatiable. City are looking to become only the second team, after Real Madrid, to win successive Champions Leagues.
“Before last year we were close all the time,” the defender said. “Last year we had a lot of hunger to win it and get to the final because we had lost one before. It doesn't change anything.
“We have the same hunger. We have experience of winning it. Knowing how to win games that’s the only difference.
“In our team we set our standards very high. In the last game [Saturday’s 2-0 win over Everton] we felt like we are not playing like we can play and the manager says it shows in the body language — we are not happy with ourselves.
“We have to take it another way — you can’t always be 100 per cent, we have to accept that. But by fighting and encouraging each other we get the result we wanted. We didn’t play our best game, but we still won the game.”
Copenhagen's first game in two months
Copenhagen, who have reached the Champions League knock-out stages for the first time since 2011 when they were eliminated by Chelsea, have already defeated Manchester United 4-3 at home in this season’s competition and advanced from Group A at their expense.
“I said to the players this morning you have to prepare mentally and be ready to suffer,” Guardiola added. “It will be a tight, tight game 100 per cent — I feel it — and normally my gut doesn’t lie to me!”
The reigning Danish champions have not played competitively since their last group game in December but their manager, Jacob Neestrup, does not see that as too much of an issue.
“Of course it would be an advantage if we had been in full flow but it is what it is and we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time,” the Copenhagen manager said.
“For me [City] are the best team in the world right now, and if you look back in the last couple of seasons. It is the biggest test we’ve had in this season so far.
“We have faced big powers before and we have a strong belief in ourselves and in Parken. They are a good team but I trust our players and I have a big belief that we can create a good performance and create as even a game as possible.”