MANCHESTER, England -- Manuel Pellegrini says there is no reason why Manchester City cannot win the Champions League after his side reached the semifinals with a victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
Kevin De Bruyne's 76th-minute strike was enough to seal a tense win over PSG at the Etihad on Tuesday night following a 2-2 draw in the first leg.
Pellegrini's former club Real Madrid are also into the last four, while European giants Barcelona and Bayern Munich hold one-goal advantages going into their second legs on Wednesday.
But the Chilean, who will leave the club at the end of the season to be replaced by Pep Guardiola, says there is no reason why City should fear any of their potential opponents.
Pellegrini told a news conference: "Of course [City can win it] because I think it is one of the targets of this club to receive every year.
"We receive a lot of criticism for different reasons but every year we are improving. I am sure the target of this club is to win the Champions League. But not only winning the Champions League [will mean] that the project at this club is finished.
"I think they want to continue in the long-term, trying to improve in every sense in every department.
"This season, next season -- playing the way we did tonight I think we played better than Paris Saint-Germain that is a very strong team. We have a lot of trust we can play everyone.
"For me it is very important to be in the semifinals because my job is to go further in both domestic games and the international game.
"We were very unlucky in the last two seasons, we played against Barcelona in the round of 16 so that is why we can't continue. But this year we improve, we qualified winning the group and after that having a very good performance against Dynamo and tonight having a very good performance.
"For me, if I leave or don't leave it is exactly the same, I don't think about the future."
Pellegrini also hailed the performances of defenders Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolas Otamendi, who restricted the French champions to few chances.
The pair have come under criticism in the absence of influential skipper Vincent Kompany, but they kept PSG danger man Zlatan Ibrahimovic quiet as they came away with a clean sheet.
Pellegrini added: "I was very happy for both of them. I don't think they have had bad seasons. Maybe they had some individual mistakes in some games.
"I said it was very important to have our best players fit 100 percent but we play a lot of games with some players injured and [that's why] we have a squad.
"I am very happy for both of them because they have a lot of criticism. If you review their complete performance over the year I think they did well."