Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola said his side is “teenagers in the competition” as they prepare for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Schalke on Tuesday.
City came from behind to win the first leg 3-2, Raheem Sterling scoring in the last minute of normal time.
They have never won the Champions League but City are one of the favourites to claim this year’s title.
“We cannot deny how strong other teams are,” said Guardiola.
“You have to dream, to point as high as possible and at the same time accept there are other teams thinking the same.”
Last week, Manchester United produced a sensational comeback to knock out French champions Paris St-Germain – a day after holders Real Madrid were stunned by Ajax at the Bernabeu.
Roma, who were defeated in the semi-finals by Liverpool last season, were also knocked out by Porto thanks to an extra-time penalty.
But Guardiola – who said City were “still not ready to fight for the latter stages” of the competition – believes qualification for the knockout stages constituted “incredible success”.
“All the clubs that are in the knockout stages want to win this title. It is difficult,” said Guardiola. “This competition is judged that when you are out of the last 16 it is a big disaster. My perspective is completely different.
“People say it is easy. Imagine to get into the last eight teams in Europe? Of course we want to win it but the other teams also have this desire.
“People think that because Real Madrid are not there, this competition will be easy. Of course I thought they were the favourites but there still remains incredible clubs to beat.”
Schalke travel to the Etihad with head coach Domenico Tedesco being told he has two games to save his job by sporting director Jochen Schneider.
The German side had let in 11 goals in three heavy defeats to leave them just four points above the Bundesliga relegation places.