Vincent Kompany has dismissed delusions of grandeur in his Manchester City side – yet warned of their “frightening” potential.
An impressive start to the season – with four wins out of four in the Premier League and a brand of exciting, attacking football – brought comparisons with Barcelona before Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Napoli.
But a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium on their debut in Europe’s biggest club competition showed just how far they still have to go to match the Spanish kings.
Aleksandar Kolarov’s free-kick levelled an Edinson Cavani opener for Napoli and captain Kompany admitted City were still a work in progress despite their desire for success.
“That’s getting very carried away being compared to Barcelona,” he said, aware that lessons had to be learnt from this entertaining encounter.
“Listen, we have got good defensive strength, we’ve got offence, a good balance in the team.
“You have to remember that our strikers, there are a few new players in there, and so it’s only going to get better with time and that’s a frightening thing to think about.
“You can consider if there was too much hype if what came out of it was a bad performance – but by no means did we have a bad performance.
“There’s no shame whatsoever to draw against a good team like that. I speak to a few Italians and they tip Napoli as one of the favourites to win their league this season.
“Not many teams are going to defend like this against us for 90 minutes and keep us down to only one goal. We didn’t lose, we got a point and we can focus on getting ourselves out of the group.
“We got as much of a chance as any team. At times we proved how good a side we are.”
And they are a united side too, added their new skipper.
Kompany took the armband from Carlos Tevez after the striker demanded a move in the summer.
With no club meeting City’s transfer valuation, the Argentine has remained at the Etihad and Kompany said there was no uneasy situation.
“We are a team of professionals and everyone gets along so well,” he said.
“I’m happy for him when he is captain and he’s happy for me – and so it was when Kolo Toure was captain.
“We are a mature enough squad to understand you need to have many leaders in the team.
The armband is something symbolic that I take great honour and great pride, but it’s not something that changes my attitude towards the team.”
