Vincent Kompany believes Manchester City have a lot of work to do before they can compete with the elite teams in the Champions League.
The gap between City and Europe’s best clubs was evident on Wednesday as Barcelona dumped the English champions out of the UEFA Champions League with a Lionel Messi masterclass at the Nou Camp.
The brilliance of Joe Hart kept the scoreline respectable with only a 1-0 defeat,(3-1) on aggregate.
Reflecting on Barcelona’s dominant display, Kompany said: “The reality is they were a better team, there is no shame in admitting that. For me there is a big, big difference.
“I will just mention Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and then there are the rest of the teams, with Real Madrid probably in between.
“Ultimately we have always said our goal is to become as good as them, but it will take some time. They are really good. Bayern Munich and Barcelona are not just Champions League-winning teams, they are World Cup-winning teams as well. They have generations that have played together a long time.
“Of course we want to make up the gap but you just have to be true to yourself. We have the ambition to be as good as they are one day, but it is not going to happen overnight.”
“The gap will eventually get closer,” added Kompany. “Whether it is Arsenal, Chelsea, (Manchester) United, the gap will become closer and I just hope it is us that gets there the first.”
City’s exit in the round of sixteen means that England will not have any represantatives in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the second time in three seasons.
City were outpalyed over the two legs , with Joe Hart’s performance being the only positive for City over the two legs.
Joe Hart’s late penalty save in the first leg gave City hope of progressing to the quarter-finals ,but Joe Hart’s heroic performance in the second leg at the Camp Nou wasn’t enough as Ivan Rakitic scored in the first half to put Barca through to the last eight of the Champions league.
On Hart’s display, centre-back Kompany said: “It was phenomenal. On that side of the pitch I felt we had all the luck we needed to get a result.
“If you want to win against those teams you need a very special performance and a little bit of luck on your side. Then you can beat them, but every team can lose. There is no shame.”
With a string of dissapointing results in the Premier League ,City have fallen six points behind Chelsea, hopes of retaining their title look bleak and they even face a battle to hold onto second place with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United all breathing down their necks.
Kompany,said: “Forget about Chelsea. We owe it to ourselves, to our fans to have a good end to this campaign.
“Then again if we finish this campaign as good as we can, maybe there is still something in it. We will have to see. It is not in our hands by any means, but we just have to go back and work hard and improve.”