Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan says they must be mentally tougher in the Champions League.

City go to Borussia Dortmund with a slender one-goal advantage having been knocked out of the competition at the quarter-final stage in each of the past three seasons.

Those defeats – against Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon – were all laced with individual errors and a lack of composure when going behind.

"I have expectations for myself and for my teammates and I know that we have a great team and are capable of going into the semi-finals," Gundogan said.

"We should have been there in the last few seasons already but we were lacking something. People sometimes unnecessarily made individual mistakes that led to goals we conceded and then obviously it is tough.

"I remember the Tottenham game we played at home, we conceded three goals, Liverpool at home we conceded two goals. When you concede this amount of goals in your home stadium, it is obviously not easy.

"I feel like we are much more stable at the moment in the season, especially defensively. We are defending quite well. The more you proceed in this competition, the more important it gets.

"Obviously it gives you a safe feeling when you know that your defensive line is working great and you are generally working as a team defensively very well, combined with the feeling that we know we are always able to score. That is great potential."