Kyle Walker has revealed how Manchester City’s previous failures helped to inspire them to reach the Champions League final this season.
The Sky Blues finally have the chance to end their Champions League duck when they take on Chelsea or Real Madrid in Istanbul later this month.
It marks the end of a painful run of quarter-final losses to Liverpool, Tottenham and then Lyon.
And England right-back Walker admits that those previous defeats helped in knowing the best way to go about putting PSG to the sword.
“I don’t think it’s over-anxious, I think it’s putting the pressure on ourselves,” he said.
“Obviously we go back to Anfield and we threw it away in the first leg, we tried our best to bring it back but it wasn’t good enough.
“Then we went to Tottenham - alright, people miss penalties and it didn’t go our way but we probably lost it in the first leg, chasing it, coming back here, we conceded two quick goals and it’s game on.
“Last year, under different circumstances, it was just one leg and it was a proper cup game and to finally go over there and get the victory, a well earned victory and then beat them 2-0 here, it’s full credit to this squad.”
Walker admitted that despite that, he and his team-mates were still nervous going into such a big game, but after Riyad Mahrez’s first of two goals, things fell into place.
“In big occasions like this, there’s always going to be some sort of nerves,” he said.
“We’re human at the end of the day, we’re going to feel like nerves like the fans are watching at home but we have to control that.
“In the first 10 to 15 minutes when we settled down and started believing in ourselves and getting players on the ball and driving at them.
“The doors opened up for us, it probably came against the run of play in the first-half with Riyad, but this is the kind of luck we need at the start and to get that goal was very important for us."
