De Bruyne: We can silence our critics

Kevin De Bruyne believes Manchester City can finally silence their critics by winning the Champions League.

City are hoping to claim a fourth Premier League title in five years this season but, for all their domestic dominance, Pep Guardiola’s side have yet to conquer Europe.

Guardiola’s hopes of scratching that particular itch were dashed in their 1-0 final defeat by Chelsea in Porto last June, but they will have a second bite at the cherry if they overcome Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final at the Bernabeu tonight.

City hold a 4-3 advantage from last week’s classic encounter at the Etihad, and De Bruyne believes the club’s detractors may be forced to change their tune if the team make that final step in Europe.

“I think it would change the perspective from outside,” he said. “As a player you want to win trophies and we want to win this one. The fact we’ve been fighting for numerous years and getting to the latter stages means we’ve been doing really well.

“Winning it would change that little narrative. We’ve been here loads of times and are always fighting to win this competition, so the consistency that we’ve had has been amazing.”

City were vulnerable to the pace of Vinicius Junior in Manchester, but Guardiola hopes right-back Kyle Walker will return after missing the past five matches with an ankle injury sustained in the quarter-final second leg against Atletico Madrid.

Walker trained yesterday with the rest of the squad and Joao Cancelo is also available after missing the first game through suspension, although John Stones will miss out.

Guardiola believes City can learn from their past European failures as they try to topple Real who, despite being crowned Spanish champions at the weekend, have conceded 95 shots and 10 goals in their previous five Champions League knockoutstage games, and will be without defender David Alaba.

“The fact we have been there before, I have been there and know how to handle the situation, that helps,” the City manager said. “But it is not a guarantee. It’s going to be a massive test.”

Guardiola also politely dismissed any notion of his City team giving the Real players a guard of honour following their La Liga triumph, as the former Barcelona coach refused to rise to attempts to provoke him yesterday. “As spokesman for this club, which is what I am, we congratulate them, but this is the Champions League,” he said.