Sergio Agüero has said Manchester City do not care who they draw in the Champions League semi-finals on Friday.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side reached the last four for the first time by beating Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night to knock the French champions out 3-2 on aggregate. Real Madrid also went through on the same evening while the other quarter-finals are between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, and Bayern Munich and Benfica.
Agüero is not concerned who City are drawn against. “At this point you cannot choose. To win the Champions League you have to play against the best and we were up against one of those, a favourite. Paris are a great team, they have very good players we knew that we did a great job over there; here at home with the fans support I think we did what we had to do.
“We won well, at times we couldn’t control the ball but we played pretty well, we knew how we had to play and I hope, we hope, we can continue in the same fashion. Now we’ll have to see who the other candidates are but we know it will be tough.”
Agüero is pleased at the progress City have made after being eliminated from the last 16 in the past two seasons. But he wants the club to continue.
“This was our goal, to be among the four best teams in the Champions League and now we want to keep growing,” said the striker. “The confidence is there, we are in semis and anything can happen. We will be at our maximum, depending on who we play against, but we will be going all out to win it.”
Pellegrini leaves City in the summer to make way for Pep Guardiola. “Obviously it is important for him because he knows he won’t be here for next season so I imagine he must be very happy, very pleased. I hope we can go even further,” said Agüero. “We know that Pellegrini won’t be there for the next season so to be in the semis is something really amazing, it gives us great pride to take City to this level.”
Agüero missed a first-half penalty though this proved immaterial. “These things happen, I’m not on a good run with penalties but the important thing is we qualified and I will get another chance to make up for it soon,” he said. “I have scored a lot of goals but the important thing is to get through.
“Obviously its not nice to miss a penalty but I’m happy because the moment passed and the most important thing is at times we played very well, so we’re pleased.”
Agüero is a former Atlético player. He said: “I am obviously going to follow both games, and I obviously hope the best team goes through, Atléti in the last few years have improved a lot and I think they can give Barcelona a really tough game. I played for Atlético and I want them to do well.
“Yes, they are playing really well [under Diego Simeone] and additionally they have an Argentine in El Cholo, I am happy with how he has taken Atlético forward and I hope he can keep doing so.”
