Raheem Sterling highlighted Manchester City's work rate and pressing as the key to beating Real Madrid and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals.
The 25-year-old struck his 31st goal of the season to open the scoring before Karim Benzema equalised for the Spanish giants on the half-hour mark.
But Gabriel Jesus' strike in the second half was enough to kill off a below-par Real Madrid side 2-1 on the night - and 4-1 on aggregate - as Los Blancos looked some way short of the team that won three Champions League trophies in a row.
Both Man City goals came from errors by centre-back Raphael Varane after he was put under intense pressure from Jesus and Sterling believes their hard work off the ball was the difference between the two sides.
"I think we put in the work and went that extra yard tonight," he told BT Sport.
"[We had] Energy, passion. It is a competition we want to do well in. If we play our football and run our socks off then the result will come.
"We know how good they are, we know how good we are and the difference was who would run the most and I thought we were brilliant today.
"We wanted to be right on them and from our pressing we got two goals."
Pep Guardiola's side will face Lyon in the last eight after their 4-2 aggregate victory, having won by the same scoreline at the Santiago Bernabeu 163 days ago.
The French outfit sprung a surprise on Juventus, progressing on away goals despite a 2-1 defeat in Turin, and will meet in a one-legged tie in Lisbon on August 15.
