Manchester City defender John Stones has admitted that it is a "relief" to have qualified for the group stages of the Champions League.

The Citizens cruised to a 6-0 aggregate victory over Steaua Bucuresti in their playoff, completing the job on Wednesday night with a 1-0 win to add to their 5-0 triumph in Romania a week earlier.

Stones has now challenged the team to prove themselves in the competition itself as they look to improve on last season's showing, when they reached the semi-finals.

"It is a good feeling, a good win. It's a relief, I suppose. We wanted to build on a good victory away from home. It was in our minds that we had a good lead but we wanted to build on that and we feel we definitely got what we wanted to achieve," he told reporters.

"It is massive for everyone, the club, the fans. It is a great stage to go and prove ourselves. We wanted to make sure we did it and we did it comfortably. We have got a lot of things to work on but we will get in every day and strive to get to the next round of this competition."

City have now qualified for the group stages of the Champions League in each of the last six seasons.