City’s only success in Europe came in 1970 when they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup but they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2016.
While they are one of the favourites to lift the trophy this year, Guardiola feels the club is just at the beginning of a long journey in the competition and have some way to go to catch up with their rivals.
“We could make another step this season, but you need 20, 30 years… we cannot deny, if we arrive in last stages of this competition, we make another step forward, but I think to compare with other teams, one success doesn’t change it,” Guardiola told reporters ahead of the last-16 second leg against Schalke.
“We are teenagers in this competition. That’s how I feel. We push ourselves. Will not be happy if we don’t go through. We want it.
“The best way is to feel this kind of pressure. You have to dream, to point as high as possible.
“At same time, accept there are other teams thinking the same. We cannot deny how strong they are,
“We want to compete. We have to have the desire to compete and face them.”
City hold a 3-2 lead going into the second leg at the Etihad Stadium but a week after both Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain exited the competition, Guardiola is taking nothing for granted.
“I prefer this score than the one at Anfield when we were 3-0 down!” Guardiola explained. “It’s 90 minutes hard work ahead and we still we have a job to do. We must make incredible efforts in epic salutations to go through.
“In the first leg, we had Nico sent off, one goal in first few minutes… anything can happen in this competition. These kinds of situations take a lot of influence to control.
“We played many minutes 2-1 down. Then, Leroy Sane makes an incredible action to win that game.
“We’ve had good results away in the Champions League. Here in the past, there are problems but, in this competition, every game is different. It is something special.
“One week ago, we didn’t expect what would happen at Paris St Germain or Real Madrid. Every game is different.
“We must play the perfect game and do what we need to do to go through. We still have a job to do.”