Pep confident City can conquer Europe again after last-16 progress

Pep Guardiola "has the feeling" Manchester City can compete to win the Champions League again after they qualified for their seventh consecutive quarter-final by beating FC Copenhagen 3-1.

City's 6-2 aggregate last-16 win was confirmed by first-half goals from Manuel Akanji, Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland at the Etihad, with Mohamed Elyounoussi's consolation the only blight on their evening.

And ahead of next Friday's draw, Guardiola insists his side are ready to take on any opponent in the final eight.

He said: "Of course we respect the opponents but we have the feeling that the opponents think City will be a big battle too.

"I had the feeling when we arrived that the players didn't feel that demand to always win. But the club gave us time to lose against Monaco, lose against Liverpool, lose against Tottenham and we went through the process to do it.

"Now the quarter-finals seven times. We won a lot of games the year we lost the final against Chelsea [2021], after that we won almost all of them the next season.

"We won all of them this season, so we are still there. We have that consistency and the feeling to win."

Guardiola made seven changes from Sunday's Manchester derby win but was adamant he had not rotated his side with this weekend's match against Liverpool in mind, refusing to discuss the Anfield clash whatsoever in his post-match press conference.

And he believes outsiders take their serene progress through ties like this one and last week's FA Cup match at Luton for granted.

The Spaniard added: "I know how difficult it is.

"I know how their [Copenhagen's] movement defensively is perfect. I respect them a lot.

"Real Madrid had problems going through against RB Leipzig tonight. We played Leipzig in the past and people said it's not difficult. It is difficult.

"The FA Cup at Luton was difficult. People take it for granted.

"It is good our standards are there. But we know internally that everything is so complicated."

The City boss also revealed that winger Jeremy Doku missed the Copenhagen win through injury.