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Milner eyes Champions League improvement for Manchester City
Aug 3, 2012 6:30:00 PM
England midfielder wants his team to build on last season's domestic title and consolidate their position as the best side in the country while managing high expectations in Europe
Manchester City midfielder James Milner is eyeing an improvement in the Champions League for his side this season after crashing out of the competition in the group stages last year.
After winning the Premier League for the first time in 44 years, Milner now wants to consolidate City’s standing as the best team in the country, and push on to improve in Europe.
"Obviously we had a successful season last year, so we want to build on that," he told the club’s official website.
"We want to improve in Europe as we were disappointed with our performance in the Champions League last year, so that’s a massive thing for us.
"On a personal level, I just want to contribute as much as I can, play as many games as I can and help the team win more trophies."
Milner doesn’t believe the pressure will increase on the City players after their title win, but feels the expectations within Mancini's squad will rise as they look to improve.
He added: "I don’t think it will put any more pressure on us. People expect us to win games with the team we have, but I don’t think there’s more pressure on us from outside, that mostly comes from ourselves and from each other.
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CITY CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TILT |
| 7.50 | Man City are 7.50 with bet365 to win the Champions League next season |
"We'll go out there as we do every game and try and win football matches. We need to start the new season very quickly now, we need to hit the ground running. I'm just looking forward to the first few games."
The midfielder also reflected on England's quarter-final defeat to Italy in Euro 2012 and he admits it was frustrating to leave the tournament on penalties again.
Milner said: "It was a disappointing finish to go out on penalties again. But it was a good experience and I think there are positives to take, I learned a lot.
"I just relaxed afterwards. I went on holiday and got a bit of sun and tried to take it easy as much as possible, ready to kick-start the new season."
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