Gundogan underlines Man City's Champions League desire ahead of potential treble
Ilkay Gundogan says Manchester City want to win the Champions League trophy “more than all the others” to complete an historic Treble.
City skipper Gundogan lifted his second trophy of the season with Saturday's 2-1 FA Cup final win over local rivals Manchester United at Wembley.
But Gundogan said the Champions League is the prize City's players want above all others when the Premier League winners face Inter Milan in Istanbul on Saturday.
“What we've done in the last few months is amazing and obviously we already have two titles,” said Gundogan.
“But we know we want this one even more than all the other ones before and that is our target for next weekend. We were chasing Arsenal for a long time in the Premier League, so we were mainly focused on trying to win our next game every single time.
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“The same goes for the FA Cup and Champions League, so there was not much time to think, as we had games every three or four days and we just wanted to win the next one.”
Reflecting on the FA Cup triumph, Gundogan - who is out of contract this summer and could play his final game for City on Saturday - said: “It feels special to lift this trophy and hopefully I can do it one more time.
“Now we have a couple of days off, so we'll be able to recover and then start our training again. It's about doing the same things we’ve been doing for the last two weeks. We don’t have to do anything special.
The FA Cup trophy was added to their Premier League success (The FA via Getty Images)“I think the simplicity of doing our things makes us special. It's about putting effort into the training sessions, preparing ourselves as well as possible and going to Istanbul to try to win the game.”
Gundogan revealed how a motivational speech from defender Ruben Dias, as City's players huddled together before kick-off, inspired them to beat United.
“I was preparing to do my speech, but Ruben wanted to say some words so he did it,” said Gundogan. “Most of the time it's me, but sometimes there are players who like to talk and it's good that other players want to say things.
“Ruben found the right words before kick-off. We do it in a huddle so it stays private, but you can imagine - motivational words for the boys. In this side, it's very special to be elected by your team-mates at the beginning of the season to be their captain.
Inter Milan will be Man City's opponents in the Champions League final (Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)“I think it's about how I was behaving in the last few years, my character and just a reward from my team-mates.
“I try to do the same things I’ve been doing for seven years now and don’t feel there's something I have to change because I have the captain’s armband.
“We have a very homogeneous group. We're very balanced, we understand each other, the atmosphere in the dressing room is always good with the players and with the staff.
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“There's not much confrontation or problems that need to be solved. Credit to the group and the leadership of the manager, as these people make it easy for me to captain this team.”
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