Pep hopes to ‘seduce’ fans in search of CL glory

Pep Guardiola hopes his Manchester City side can seduce their fans with their performances in the Champions League this season.

The Premier League champions are among the favourites to win Europe's top club competition this season - as they compete in it for a ninth successive year - but their fans are still to be truly won over by it. Guardiola has previously commented on the lack of atmosphere at European games in comparison to Premier League fixtures.

This has been alien to the Catalan given his background as a player and manager at Barcelona and also after working at Bayern Munich.

YetCity,whohaveleaptout of the pack to the top of the English game in the past decade, have no great tradition in the Champions League. Their supporters also regularly boo the competition anthem in a long-running protest against organisers UEFA.

"The fans must know it without them and the nice environment at home it is impossible," said Guardiola ahead of tonight’s Group C clash with Dinamo Zagreb at the Etihad Stadium, for which a crowd of 48-50,000 is expected.

"We are going to try in our football to seduce the fans and say, 'OK we can do it'. We have to seduce them so they realise how it's important, and the only way to seduce them is by winning games and playing good.

"I know for the fans it's the Premier League that's most exciting. We know that as a club and the people prefer by far to win the Premier League than the Champions League. I know how special that is but this competition is nice too and our fans they have to live it as a dream.”