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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
David McDonnell

Pep Guardiola backs Man City stars to end Champions League quarter-final curse

Pep Guardiola says he trusts his Manchester City players to end their Champions League quarter-final curse under him and make it to the semi-finals.

City hold a 2-1 lead over Borussia Dortmund heading into Wednesday's decisive second-leg of their quarter-final tie in Germany.

The Blues have gone out at the quarter-final stage for the past three years, but Guardiola says he trusts them to bring that run to an end tomorrow.

"After 27 wins in 29 games, if I don’t trust them, we have a big problem," said Guardiola. "I’d be crazy.

"We can win or lose. If we lose, you can kill me, you first. What we’ve done so far, we deserve to be in this position. We know if we win, we go through.

Pep Guardiola trusts his players to complete the job in Dortmund (Getty Images)

"In the Premier League we need three wins and one draw, as we expect Manchester United to win their last seven games.

"What we’ve done has given us this opportunity. If we go out, we’ll be disappointed, but there’s another opportunity.

"We lost against Lyon. We were better, but we went out. We are going to be in the Champions League for the 11th season in a row next season, so we’ll be there again and that’s fantastic.

"But now is the time to make another step which everyone wants. The players were sad last season and now we have the other opportunity.

"We have to win, we have to do it, nobody will say 'just go to the semi finals'. We have to do it.

"We’ll see, but I’m so excited and happy to travel to Germany to try to do it and see what happens."

City will go into the clash at the Westfalenstadion already aware of who will be awaiting them in the semi-finals should they make it.

Paris Saint-Germain lead Bayern Munich by three goals to two following their first leg victory on away soil, and the side who progresses after the second leg at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday will face the winner of Dortmund vs City in the last four.

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