BLOW THEM AWAY

Pep wants City to ‘kill the tie’ by going for goals against struggling Schalke in Germany

PEP GUARDIOLA has ordered his players to go for the jugular against Schalke tonight.

The Manchester City boss said the struggling Bundesliga outfit deserve respect despite enduring a miserable league campaign.

But he maintained City’s red-hot stars must try to kill off the tie ahead of the second leg in just under three weeks.

Guardiola said: “We will try to impose our game and score goals. Sometimes it is better to be defensive at home and score away, but we will look to be ourselves.

“It may not happen that we score four or five, but we will try to play a good game, get a good result and then try to finish the tie in Manchester.”

City made the trip to Gelsenkirchen yesterday without John Stones (above), Gabriel Jesus, Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph – with the first two players left behind on account of groin and hamstring injuries, respectively.

Guardiola confirmed they were “not big ones” but just enough to rule them out of a midweek trip. Yet, City could not be in a more confident frame of mind after capping a three-match winning run in the Premier League with a 6-0 thrashing of Chelsea and smooth passage to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a victory over Newport

County at the weekend.

In contrast, Schalke have followed up a season in which they qualified for the Champions League with just six wins from 22 games and sit uncomfortably close to the relegation zone in 14th place. But Domenico Tedesco’s side should be a different proposition in their Veltins Arena home tonight according to Guardiola.

“This competition is special, the teams are good and you have to survive the atmosphere and in the right moments make the difference,” he added.

But Guardiola admitted that his team could not be in better shape.

He said: “We arrive here with many dreams in our heads, to play a good game and to bring it back to our stadium.

“We feel confident there, but we try to score goals – it’s important to score a minimum of one goal.”

Kevin De Bruyne is set to start in Germany tonight, but he said the challenge of trying to win trophies on four fronts is going to be a huge mountain to climb... even for City.

The Belgium star said: “The goal is not to win the four, it is to win every game.

“You can not set the standards to win four trophies.

“We are happy where we are – we want to progress in every competition we play in. But to win all four, that is nearly impossible.

“We are still fighting on all fronts. We always play the same under Pep, there is not a lot of difference to last season.

“The standard is very high, but maybe we win more this year.”

De Bruyne has missed 24 games as successive knee injuries have disrupted his season.

But after being eased back into City’s crowded schedule in early January, he believes he is approaching the sort of rhythm he had during their recordbreaking campaign last term.

He added: “I don’t know if I feel more fresh, but sometimes it’s nice to feel a flow and just keep going – which was what happened last season.

“It’s been difficult as six months out is a long time, but I’m feeling better and better.”