Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has stated that his side can no longer make any excuses for coming up short in the Champions League.
While City have become a dominant force in the Premier League, they have usually flattered to deceive in the Champions League over the past few years.
City have done well in the Champions League this term though after topping their group and Hart has stated that the Citizens can now no longer have any excuses if they do not make an impact in the knockout stages this time around.
Hart said: "If so we'd have to feel we can beat them. There's no point using excuses, saying we got beat by the best teams.
"If you want to win this competition you will have to beat the best. And that's what we want to do. We have to have no fear. Seville away was a big performance from us, that's the type of performance we need to be producing more of.
"We've done OK in other games. I thought we were fantastic in the second half against Gladbach last week. We have to take the positives but let's not forget we've had some bad performances too and we don't want more of them."
"We've just got to see who we get. We've done all we can to get ourselves a good draw. The hope is that we can get a run going and stay in all four competitions for as long as we can. It'd be great for this squad."