De Bruyne admits City need Champions League trophy to ‘change the narrative’

Kevin De Bruyne believes Manchester City have to win the Champions League to change the perception of the club despite their recent domestic domination.

Pep Guardiola’s team will reach a second successive final if Real Madrid are knocked out at the Bernabéu on Wednesday. City hold a 4-3 advantage from the first leg. In the past decade City have claimed five Premier League titles, the FA Cup and six League Cups with the European Cup the main prize to have eluded them. The 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup remains their only European silverware.

Related: Jack Grealish is Manchester City’s new hype man as Rodri runs engine room | Barney Ronay

“I think it would change the perspective from outside,” he said of Champions League victory. “As a player you want to win trophies and we want to win this one. The fact we’ve been fighting for numerous years and getting to the latter stages means we’ve been doing really well. It’s a cup competition and the quality is very high so it’s very difficult to win it but in the end if you look back at the way we performed and I have performed over seven years we have done really well. We have not won it but winning it would change that little narrative.

“I don’t think it changes the perspective of how I look at myself as a player. I’ve known what I’ve done good and bad in my career and I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done. I want to win every trophy that I can get but that’s a hard task. I would obviously love to win the Champions League.”

De Bruyne is likely to be the only City player to start on Wednesday who was also in the XI that lost 1-0 at Madrid in the second leg of the 2016 semi-final, when Fernando scored a decisive own goal.

“I think we are in better shape now,” he said. “I remember when we