Bernardo Silva relishing chase for trophies as Manchester City eye another shot at Champions League

LONDON: Even Pep Guardiola admitted last season that Manchester City needed to be crowned European champions to gain acceptance among football’s royalty.

Real Madrid have 13 European Cup or Champions League titles to their name, AC Milan seven and both Liverpool and Bayern Munich have six.

Despite City’s remarkable success in England over the past decade, this prize is the “big gap to fill” says midfielder Bernardo Silva, 27, as they prepare for a titanic semifinal encounter with Real Madrid.

He labels the Spanish side the “kings of the Champions League,” but feels City are now ready to sit on the throne, especially after their disappointing 1-0 loss in last season’s showpiece to Chelsea.

In their first final in the competition, Guardiola’s team were strangely below par — and defeat only fueled their motivation to succeed.

“You learn with the mistakes, you learn with the experiences and it was still a very good experience for us in the Champions League last season,” said Silva.

“Unfortunately the final did not go the way we expected. But we will try to get there again this season — and this time win it.

“We saw the games Real played against PSG and Chelsea, so if they are able to beat both of those teams it means they are one of the best teams in the world and we are going to have to fight to beat them.

“But there is no fear. We beat them two seasons ago in the last 16 and we will try to beat them again, knowing they are the kings of the Champions League as they say. But we want to be kings and we believe in our team.”

That belief has increased further following the return of Ruben Dias after a seven-week absence with injury, and Bernardo has no doubt City’s defense can handle the threat of the in-form Karim