Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan says he is eyeing revenge against Liverpool in the Champions League when the two sides meet on Wednesday night.

Liverpool inflicted City’s only defeat of the Premier League season on them earlier the year when they ran out 4-3 winners at Anfield.

Second-half goals from Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah sealed an unlikely three points for the Reds, however Gundogan insists his side are ready for the threat Liverpool’s free-scoring front three pose this time around.

“There’s a lot of respect, because all three have scored plenty of goals and they’ve also set up many more,” the midfielder said. “Liverpool are still the only team that’s been capable of beating us in the Premier League. But we’re aware why this happened, although we performed pretty well that day.

“Obviously, going back to Anfield for the first-leg game is a great motivation for us. We’ll try to play well and get a good result for the second leg. We’re aware of our strengths and know what we’re capable of. We want to prove that in both games, of course.

“We’d like to get a great result in the first leg and then dominate the game in the second leg, in front of our fans. That’s what we want to do and, if we achieve that, then I’m sure we’ll make it into the next round.”

In facing Liverpool, Gundogan takes on his former manager Jurgen Klopp – the man who signed him at Borussia Dortmund.

And the German international revealed the pair still share a close relationship.

“We did chat a bit at that time,” he said. “I only said: ‘See you soon’ and sent him a little smiley emoji, to which he answered with a smiley as well. We were both happy with this match-up, although maybe we’d both have liked to face foreign opposition. That would’ve given us the chance of having two English teams in the semi-finals.”