Tuesday 25 November 2014 19:14, UK
Martin Demichelis accepts that Manchester City have not performed at their best in Europe this season but admits they are still dreaming of claiming a spot in the last 16 of the Champions League next February.
The Premier League champions have only collected two points from their opening four games in Group E and will need to win both of their final two fixtures to stand any chance of progessing to the knockout stages.
First up on Tuesday they entertain five-time European champions Bayern Munich who have already qualified for the next phase of the competition, City are bottom behind Roma and CSKA Moscow who both have four points.
The 33-year-old Argentinian defender spent seven years at the Bundesliga champions and four years ago played in the Champions League final when Bayern were beaten by Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan.
Looking ahead to their meeting at the Etihad, he said: "It is not just the manager who is disappointed. We are not happy with our performances in the Champions League.
"But we do have a very good squad and we really should do much better. There are two games left and I'm sure we will play better. Why shouldn't we dream of going through to the last 16?
I know the German mentality and I'm sure they'll come here to win
"But if you look back at last season, when we played at Bayern, we were 2-0 down after 12 minutes and came back to win it 3-2, which shows what we can do.
"On Tuesday it's a question of being straight at it and putting in our best performance, looking to control the game and play with aggression."
And Demichelis predicts Bayern will be no pushovers despite already being assured of top spot in the group.
He added: “I know the German mentality is always the same. Germans work as they think and I'm sure they'll come here to win. It won't be an easy task.
"It may be that they don't field their strongest starting XI but they'll have the quality in the squad and the players on the bench to deal with that."
