As City prepare for the first leg of the Uefa Women’s Champions League semi-finals, Nick Cushing has explained why his squad will be confident heading into the clash against Lyon.

The fixture will seem somewhat of a déjà vu as we met the French-side during exactly the same stage of the competition last year, where we lost 3-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 defeat at home and a 1-0 win away.

As Cushing’s side enter battle for a place in the final, the boss believes that Manchester City are one of the best teams in Europe.

“We’ve learned that we have the ability to dominate teams with the ball.

“We’ve been good in every game and we are in form - playing well even during the defeats.

“We have to make sure we don’t give sloppy goals away on Sunday. They are greatest team in the world at the moment but we are a good team as well.

“We have to play the way we play because we’ve been successful at it.

“Being in the Champions League semi-final two years in a row shows that we are one of the best in Europe but we’ve still got a lot of improvements.

“We have beaten Lyon before so that will give us confidence going into the match.”

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Despite losing out on a place in the final, the Blues still managed to seal a victory away to Lyon during the second leg of the semis last year. In addition, we also secured a win over the current Champions League holders in pre-season.

“The squad are as fresh as can be – we’ve adapted training but it is a lot of games, and having a league game so close to Champions League isn’t ideal but I can’t change that.

“I think the message for the team has been the same all week – the results over recent weeks shows that we aren’t untouchable at some point Lyon will taste defeat too.

“People don’t expect us to beat them and we are going into the game as the under dogs.”

Be there to support Manchester City as we take on Lyon at the Academy Stadium on Sunday 22 April, kick-off at 1pm.