Bernardo Silva acknowledges Manchester City will need a slice of luck if they are to compete for the Champions League title this season.

City kick-off their European campaign at Feyenoord on Wednesday, having bowed out to Silva’s Monaco in the first knockout round last term and reaching the semi-finals the year before.

Silva is keen for his new team to strive for glory in the competition, but he concedes that they face a tough task.

‘When you’re at a club like City, you have to do your best to win all the trophies you compete for,’ he told the club’s official website.

‘Of course, it’s not easy to win a competition like the Champions League, but if you never try, you’ll never win it.

‘It’s a special competition; first you have the group stages which is a tournament in itself, and then, when you pass through the group stage, it’s a completely different competition again.

‘To play a game at home and away, you have to play in a different way than when you’re playing in the group.

‘The thing I learned from last season is that you need a lot of confidence, you need to be at your best and, even when you’re at your best, sometimes you lose.

‘But because things are so complicated in the Champions League, you also need to have a bit of luck as well.’

City have been drawn into a tough group alongside Feyenoord, Shakhtar Donetsk and Napoli, with Silva warning that the Dutch side represent a tricky opponent.

‘If they’re in the Champions League, they are a good team,’ he added.

‘They have a lot of good players, for sure, but, in the Champions League, it’s a different competition and we’ll try to do our best to go as far as possible.’

This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.co.za