Lijnders: The bigger the challenge the better

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Manchester City F.C.

·11 January 2026

Lijnders: The bigger the challenge the better

Pep Lijnders says City’s target is to reach as many cup finals and take part in as many high profile matches as possible.

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And in particular, Lijnders believes some of our newer arrivals will benefit hugely from playing in high-profile semi-finals, finals and Champions League games.

“We have players who won everything. Rodri, Bernardo, Ruben all these guys and Gigio last year won the big one Champions League), said Lijnders.

“It’s aways a help knowing you can reach finals when you get into difficult games.

“We want to play as many games as possible each year and give us the most difficult games, because with this we can improve.”

Ahead of our tough Carabao Cup two-legged semi-final with Newcastle, Lijnders says the target is simple – reach the final.

“It would be unbelievable to go to Wembley,” he said.

“I always think in the start of the season, it’s like a trampoline, everyone’s playing, everyone’s involved, everyone knows there’s a next game because it’s the League Cup but now we’re in a semi-final.

“Now it’s one leg away and we have to put ourselves in a good position. There’s a long time between - which is very strange by the way.

“And we want to go to Wembley. We all know the history of the stadium, and we know the history of this Club, so we want to do that again. For players it’s always like this.

“To gain confidence going into big games. To go to Real Madrid and win there. To go to Newcastle and try to get a result. We will try that.”