The clash in Croatia marks the first time City’s Elite Development Squad have reached the knockout stages of the Youth League since 2018 with the game, which kicks off at 1pm (UK), being shown live on CITY+ and Recast.
Brian Barry Murphy’s youngsters jetted out to Croatia on Monday buoyed by last Saturday’s fine 5-0 win over Everton, a result which sent us five points clear at the top of the Premier League 2 table.
Now though the focus is all about Europe and for central defender Burns, who has been a tower of strength at the heart of City’s back line this season, the chance to test ourselves against the Croatian champions is a challenge to be relished.
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And he says we can take heart from our unbeaten passage through the group stages where we impressed in overcoming Sevilla, Copenhagen and Borussia Dortmund.
“That’s what ultimately you want to get to in your career. You want to be playing in these massive games,” Burns declared.
“You want that adrenalin rush in terms of not knowing what to expect. You want that to help drive you on.
“It’s going to be very interesting. We are all excited and we want to give them a good game.
“(I think) we can take confidence from the group stages too.
“Sevilla away, when we won 5-1, was one of our best performances of the season in terms of mentality.
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“We went 1-0 down and people may have looked at previous years and thought we won’t come back but we proved a lot of people wrong in terms of what we can do.”
Burns also says that he is looking forward to the separate technical challenges thrown up by facing European opposition.
And though City have the incentive of knowing victory would earn us a quarter-final trip to either Paris Saint-Germain or Borussia Dortmund, he says City are focused solely on seeking to overcome a talented Hajduk side.
“Obviously there are different styles of football in different countries, but I feel like as a team we have risen to it so far,” Burns added.
“We have stayed the same in terms of how we play, and I’d like to think we have encountered a lot of what we have faced and given a good battle.
“We can’t look beyond Hajduk but it’s very exciting and to be the best, you have to beat the best.
“People may not look at us as one of the major teams, but I think the way we play we have demonstrated what we can do so far.”
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