OUR TIME
Kompany says City are ready to take next step and join the giants of Europe by winning the Champions League
VINCENT KOMPANY admits the time has come for Manchester City to join the elite group of Champions League winners.
Pep Guardiola’s side have a commanding 16-point lead at the top of the Premier League and can now focus all their attention on conquering Europe.
Skipper Kompany, whose last appearance in the competition was a semi-final defeat to Real Madrid in 2016, said the team are now ready to take the next step and lift the trophy for the first time.
Asked if City – who visit Basel tonight in the last 16 – had suffered from Champions League inferiority complex in the in the past, Kompany said: “I wouldn’t call it that, but a lack of experience, for sure.
“We’ve been caught out on occasions we shouldn’t have, but things have changed and if there’s a year, a moment when the club is ready to feel at home, then it’s now.
“I’m not going to say it’s a matter of time, some clubs never win it.
“But if every year we can go into it with this kind of confidence then, if not this year or next year, eventually we’ll get there, I’m sure of it. It’s one thing for us to make that statement, but for us to go out and do it . . in previous years we’ve felt how difficult it is.
“We’re trying to break into a wellestablished order – Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid – and any team who has tried it over the last 10 years has failed.
“But first it’s Basel, then getting to the stage where we can measure ourselves against these teams and feel like we can beat them.”
With the Premier League already in the bag, the Champions League is the competition that has assumed greater significance for City in their unashamed quest to be recognised among Europe’s very best.
Last season’s last-16 exit to Monaco, when they scored six goals over two legs but still went out, was a wake-up call, and they are a more formidable side this time around, with few weaknesses.
They remain on course for an unprecedented Quadruple, but Kompany insisted there had been no discussion among the players of scooping all four trophies.
“Quadruple talk? No, there’s been none,” said Kompany. “But winning the next game and the next one? Always. I can honestly say, the key thing I’ve noticed – and I can’t say if it will get us all the trophies – is the ability to switch back on for every game with the same motivation, respect for opponents and to make sure we’re 100 per cent.
“I’ve not experienced that in any of the teams I’ve played in before.”
If Guardiola was looking for an omen ahead of tonight’s tie, he beat Basel en route to winning the Treble in his first season with Barcelona in 2009.
Reminded of that 5-0 group stage victory in Switzerland, the Spaniard said: “It was a great moment for me, my first year at Barcelona, first in the Champions League, a good performance, so I’m happy to be back here.”
But he was not expecting an easy time at St Jakob-Park, adding: “They’ve shown great performances in the group stage, beating Manchester United and Benfica.
“They’re strong and well organised, with counter-attacks. I told my players they will have difficulties here, but we’re confident, we have the spirit and in general we’re a good team.”