Bacary Sagna has urged Manchester City to win the Champions League for Manuel Pellegrini before the manager is replaced in the summer by Pep Guardiola.
City will find out in Friday’s draw who they play in the semi-finals after knocking Paris Saint-Germain out 3-2 on aggregate.
While Kevin De Bruyne’s 76th-minute strike secured a 1-0 victory in Tuesday night’s second leg to put the club into the last four of the European Cup for the first time, Sagna wants City to progress to May’s final in Milan and claim the trophy for Pellegrini.
“It would be the best [to win it for the manager] but we still have a lot of work to do to achieve that,” the right-back said. “We can be glad but now we have to start thinking about Chelsea [who they face in the Premier League on Saturday] and after that we’ll see.
“Getting to a semi-final is massive. I remember playing in that semi-final for Arsenal against [Manchester] United [in 2009]. It was just great to see the atmosphere, to see the happiness in people’s eyes. It was just great. I’d love to experience something like that again.”
City’s Premier League challenge has disappointed, with the side 15 points behind Leicester City with six games left. But eliminating the French champions shows Manchester City’s real quality, says Sagna.
“We gave the best answer to anyone who doubts us by qualifying for the semi-final,” he said. “If anyone wondered which is the best between the French Ligue 1 and the Premier League they will have seen the Premier League is the best.
“As a team we’ve shown we deserve to be one of the best in Europe. We are still here even though we’ve had some setbacks in the league. We want to fight. We had to step up. We could have done better in the league and we still have to look forward to it. We still have to qualify for the Champions League.”
Of Tuesday’s matchwinner De Bruyne, Sagna added: “Kevin’s a great player, he’s shown his class since he came to the club and he’s very important to us.”
De Bruyne, whose goal was his third since returning from 10 weeks out with injury, is also clear City should not settle for the semi-finals. “What does a semi-final mean?” he asked. “If you lose the final, you can say you’ve been in a final. That’s beautiful of course, but I want to advance. It’s all about the titles and the trophies. I want to win those. They give you the best feeling.
“We’ll do everything to go through. I joined this club to win trophies. It’s has been a season with ups and downs, but in the Champions League we’ve been doing well. Our performances are good.”
