De Bruyne warns Man City they will be branded failures without UCL win
Kevin De Bruyne warned his team-mates they will be branded failures if City blow their latest Champions League mission.
Despite the countless millions which have been poured into the club, a semi-final exit four years ago is the best that Manchester City have managed.
Pep Guardiola’s side face Real Madrid in their last-16 first leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.
And if Uefa have their way, this will be City’s last season in the competition ahead of a two-year ban for breaking Financial Fair Play rules.
Midfielder De Bruyne, 28, said: “It’s Madrid and they have won the most Champions Leagues out of everybody.
“But I think we will go there to try to play our game, try to play offensive football and put them under pressure
“If we don’t win the Champions League, everybody is going to say we are failures like the last five years.
“It’s something we’ve not won yet. We always want to win everything but sometimes another team is better or performing well – like Liverpool are doing this season.
“It’s just that way and you have to admit it. But we will go there to win. You can’t look forward too much, though.
Although Saturday night’s clash at Leicester was between second and third in the Premier League, it was actually City’s least important match of three games in a week.
After the trip to the Spanish capital, they head to London on Sunday for the Carabao Cup final against Aston Villa at Wembley.
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De Bruyne – lucky to get away with a blatant handball from James Maddison’s first-half free-kick – is relishing the showdown with Real, who suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Levante at the weekend.
The Belgian added: “It’s nice to play these really big games and the fans are excited about it.
“There’s a lot of talk about it, so we prepare ourselves the best way we can.”