Manuel Pellegrini insists his departure doesn't matter after leading Man City to Champions League semi-final
Wednesday 13 April 2016 09:18, UK
Manuel Pellegrini insists his future at Manchester City is insignificant after leading the club to the Champions League semi-final.
Kevin De Bruyne's 76th-minute goal gave City a 1-0 win over PSG on the night, going through 3-2 on aggregate, but it was announced in February that this would be Pellegrini's last season at the club.
Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola will be his replacement, and despite the possibility that they may meet in the last four, the Chilean says all that matters is the present.
Pellegrini said: "Whether I leave the club at the end of the season or not this achievement is the same. I don't think about leaving at the end of the season.
"For me it's exactly the same, it doesn't matter if we get Bayern or Barca or Real or whoever. I repeat I don't want to link what happened tonight with the future."
Asked if City can become the best team in Europe at the Milan final next month, Pellegrini said: "Of course. I think that is one of the targets of this club is to improve every year.
"We receive a lot of criticism for different reasons, but we are improving every year. The target of this club is to win the Champions League, but not just that.
"The project of this club is not finished, the club want to improve every year, this season, next season."
Not many gave Pellegrini's side much of a chance when the draw was made, with this being City's first appearance at the quarter-final stage of the competition.
But Pellegrini is adamant his side were the better team on Tuesday night, and despite waves of pressure from the French champions, City were dominant in midfield.
"We know we have to play a big team in Europe and the way we play against PSG tonight I think we were better than them.
"It's important to be in the semi-final. I think that we have been very unlucky in last two seasons we played Barcelona, but this year the team improved, this season we qualified winning the group and had a very good performance against Dynamo."
City will find out who their semi-final opponents will be in the draw in Nyon on Friday, while Guardiola's Bayern are 1-0 up against Benfica going into their second leg in Lisbon on Wednesday.
