Porto want to win the Champions League, says Moutinho

10-Mar-2013 8:45:00 PM

The midfielder is determined to advance as far as possible in the competition, and took time to praise the work of coach Vitor Pereira

Joao Moutinho insists Porto want to win the Champions League but are currently looking no further than the second leg of their last-16 clash with Malaga.

The midfielder's goal in the first meeting between the two sides at the Estadio do Dragao gives the Portuguese club a 1-0 lead going into the game, and he admitted they are determined to go as far as possible in this season's competition.

"We must take it match by match," Moutinho told Uefa.com

"As I said, we all have the ambition to win the Champions League. Anyone who is at this stage has a desire to go as far as possible, but we're not thinking further than the game against Malaga.

"That would be a mistake, because they're extremely difficult to beat and will be doing everything they can to go through."

Porto boss Vitor Pereira has been widely praised after guiding the club to the league title last season and to within touching distance of the Champions League quarter-finals, and Moutinho believes the 44-year-old has been a complete success since his appointment in 2011.

He added: "Everything he has done has been right.

"He has been passing on all his knowledge. He's someone we already knew, as the assistant of Andre Villas-Boas, so him knowing us, us knowing him, allowed us to immediately become champions in our first year together.

"Our and his ambition grows every day and this season we want more. We want to become champions again and we want to go as far as possible in the Champions League."