Toure: Champions League has opened up for us
Yaya Toure said that Manchester City feel that the Champions League is opening up, as they aim for a place in the quarter-finals of the competition. City’s remarkable 5-3 defeat of Monaco means that they just have to avoid a two-goal defeat at the Stade Louis II to progress to the last eight.
With Barcelona losing 4-0 at Paris Saint Germain last week there is a feeling that the competition is more open than ever before for a new winner such as City.
"Definitely it's open,” Toure said of the Champions League. “To be honest it's open. Because when you see PSG win against Barcelona, what can you say about that?"
Toure said that City showed their top-level experience recovering from 3-2 down to win 5-3, paying compliment to his veteran colleague David Silva, who like Toure is now in his seventh season at the Etihad Stadium.
“An inexperienced team maybe would think the game was done,” Toure said. “But with City we have a lot of experienced players in our team, like Silva, we always been used to coming back in games. today we showed a lot of desire and hunger as well.”
It was the type of comeback that Manchester United used to be renowned for and Toure said that it was only United’s superior history meant that people continued to believe in their ability to upset the odds. "The history is not behind City, if you know what I mean,” Toure said. “A team like United, people will always believe them, because they have the history. We just try to do our best, try to come close to United, but it's what's got to happen in the few years coming."
There was a feeling at City on Tuesday that this was an evening they had been waiting for for a long time. Toure said that that was the type of atmosphere he hoped for more often at the Etihad Stadium, and said that he wanted their performance to create more nights like that in the future. “It was a special night, even in the dressing room we were talking about it,” he said. “The fans were brilliant. It is the kind of crowd we wanted. They were pushing, they were with us. For them we were running to die. We know if we perform like that we are going to have more fans again.”
Bacary Sagna said he did not know if City could win the Champions League playing like they did against Monaco, but said that they must organise themselves better in defence. “I think we have to communicate a bit more because it’s all about communication,” Sagna said. “We conceded three goals so of course I can’t be pleased as a defender but we managed to react, keep going forward and we never gave up.”