City now face Lyon next Saturday after seeing off the Champions League’s most successful side and Sterling believes hard work was the key to tonight’s victory.
“I think just energy, passion are the reasons we are through,” said Sterling.
“It’s one of the competitions that we want to do well in and we said playing our football was important, but the key was to run our socks off because we believed if we did, the result would follow.
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“The most important thing today was that we knew how good they were, but we know how good we are.
“I think the difference was who ran the most and who was willing to put that extra yard in and I thought we were brilliant tonight.
“With the players that we’ve got we felt no inferiority; we played really well and of course they’ve got some great players, but with the energy and the performance the boys showed, we were brilliant tonight.
“Pressing high was part of the plan - to be on the front foot, with aggression and be right on them and we did that. Through our pressing, we got two goals.”
“Now we’re through to the last eight in Lisbon and it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to. I’m just pleased that we’re there.”
And on hitting a century of goals for the Club, he added: “Yeah, it’s a great achievement, but hopefully there are plenty more to follow!”
