Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has told his team to forget about their past failings in the Champions League and focus on their strong points.

The Citizens have failed to progress from the group stages of the competition over the past two years and were unable to record a single victory when pitted against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax last term.

"I think we should forget that Manchester City didn't qualify for the next round in the last two editions, and before that just managed to reach the Europa League," Pellegrini told reporters. "It has been three years now that this club hasn't done well in Europe.

"I think that if we want to qualify, we have to respect Plzen, CSKA Moscow and Bayern Munich the same way, and will try to put in our best performance to beat them. I think the most important aspect is to make the players feel that they have the capacity, and feel the confidence to compete against teams at the same level.

"But I have always repeated the same sentence to my players: If we are eliminated in the Champions League, then that is because we faced a team that was superior to us and who played better than us, and not because they faced a bad playing team. I think that has helped the players a bit, to let them feel that they have their qualities as well."

City get their Champions League campaign underway on Tuesday when they travel to Czech champions Viktoria Plzen in Group D.