CITY TO FACE BAYERN MUNICH OR REAL MADRID IN PLAY-OFFS

Mateo Kovacic – who scored the crucial equaliser for Manchester City – spoke to TNT Sports after finding out his side would play either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the knockout phase play-offs.

“Every game in the Champions League is a tough one, so first of all we can be happy that we are through, because it was a tough group stage for us. It was not easy. We are through, that’s the most important thing. Whoever comes, it will be difficult, so it does not matter.

“It was obviously a game with a lot of pressure. We had to win. I think the first half was not bad, but we just could not score or get the chances. We concede with the first chance and in the end we are happy that we could score, that we could win this game. We had a really good game.

“I don’t know if it was one of the biggest, but it was good for sure, because we came out really well. We knew that we needed to step up, because the first half was not enough. We saw the great character, the great desire to win, to go through, and the crowd was behind us. It was an amazing atmosphere today.

“We are here to go through, to go in the next stages. We are a good team. We can be there and today we showed that we have a great character. We come back from 1-0 down and that’s what a great team does.”