Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini feels that his team can win the Champions League after overcoming Paris Saint-Germain to reach the semi-finals for the first time.
City rode a 76th-minute strike from Kevin De Bruyne to secure a 1-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Tuesday evening to earn a 3-2 aggregate win over their French opponents and book a place in Friday's draw for the last four stage.
"Of course, because I think it is one of the targets of this club to receive every year. We receive a lot of criticism for different reasons, but every year we are improving," Pellegrini told the local media here after the match.
"I am sure the target of this club is to win the Champions League, but not by winning the Champions League will the project be finished. They want to continue improving every season."
Boosted by the financial power of their Qatari owners, City have emerged as a major force in the English Premier League (EPL) in recent years, winning the title twice, including under Pellegrini in the 2013-14 season.
They have not been as successful in European competitions though, but Pellegrini asserted that their performances have not been as bad as the critics sometimes make it out to be.
"But I never understand the criticism we get. We beat Bayern Munich in my first season and lost against Barcelona in the round-of-16. In the second season, we didn't play well but beat Bayern Munich again and Roma, then we lost to Barca again. This season we won the group and now we beat PSG," the Chilean said.
"I really don't understand the criticism or they don't understand Barcelona have better players."
The 62-year-old was happy with City's performance on Tuesday and praised his players for their performance against their much-fancied opponents from The French capital.
"Kevin de Bruyne is an important player for us. We deserved a goal before he scored. We dominated that game from the beginning until the end. I trust my team so much, the penalty miss from Aguero was not the best moment, but once again, this team demonstrated the character and personality of a big team," Pellegrini said.
"I am very satisfied, not only because we won the game and qualified for the semi-finals, but because we won in the style of play we want," he added.
"We didn't want to draw 0-0, we showed from the start we wanted to beat PSG."
