Janine Beckie says City’s quality and level of performance is only going to get better as the squad prepare for Thursday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League round of 32 trip to Lugano.
The City squad will fly out to Switzerland on the back of last weekend’s historic 1-0 derby win over Manchester United.
Due to the preceding international break, the squad had only limited time to prepare for the first-ever professional women’s Manchester derby.
But now that Nick Cushing’s squad are all together back in their home environment, Beckie is adamant that both results and displays will follow suit.
“Most of the time we want to make training even harder than a game,” said the Canadian international.
“When we press it makes it even harder for the players trying to play out than they would find in a league game.
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“We prepare well and definitely we will get better over the course of season.
“We have to remember that Saturday was our first game. People had been in and out of the camp through internationals and injuries and as we move through the season it will get better.”
City boast a fine record in the Champions League having reached the semi-finals in both 2017 and 2018.
And Beckie said the opportunity to play on the biggest stage in Europe had been one of the key factors when she was pondering on moving from America.
“When I started having conversations about moving to Europe, I said I wanted to join a Champions League team and City are one of them,” Beckie added.
“I’m really excited to play.”
