The Blues beat the Russian outfit 4-0 in Perm, thanks to a brace from Jen Beattie, plus goals from Lucy Bronze and Izzy Christiansen.
After a 2-0 win at the Academy Stadium in the first leg, City’s 6-0 win over the two legs means they go into Monday’s draw for the last 16 of the competition.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, the manager declared how proud he was of his players.
“The fact this football club is in this competition shows that we want to be one of the best in Europe,” he said.
“I thought we’d score here and we did. We wanted to be a little more in control of the game and in their half of the pitch and we took advantage of the spaces.
“The players today showed complete control, even when we made changes. When you score four and don’t concede in your first ever Champions League away game, I’m really pleased.”
Cushing believes another Champions League win shows that the team are growing in confidence.
“We expect the opposition to have chances against us because of the elite level of the Champions League,” he said. “We made sure that at no point it looked like the tie could slip away from us. Not only did we win the game, but we performed very well.”
To still be winning at the end of a really busy period is pleasing for Cushing, but he refuses to get carried away.
“It’s early days for us in Champions League terms,” he said. “We need to use this to help us grow. The objective is to get into the next round, which we’ve done, but now we go away and see who we get in the draw.
“We know that in this next round it will be 16 top sides and we’ve got to be realistic.
“We just want to be competitive and we can’t look past the next round. We have to prepare for whoever it is. If we’re the best versions of ourselves it will be a great marker for us to know where this team is at.”
