Pep Guardiola said his Manchester City players can now 'visualize' the treble. He commented during the post-match media inter-action after Manchester City trounced 14-time finalist Real Madrid to reach the Champions League final on Wednesday night (according to Indian time).

City won 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium to win the tie 5-1 on aggregate and is now just three wins away from winning the Premier League title, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season.

Guardiola has repeatedly distanced himself from talk of a treble that was achieved only once before in English football by Manchester United in 1999. But after crushing Madrid, the City boss admitted his squad has started thinking about the prospect of writing themselves into the history books.

"Let me win the first two," said Guardiola when asked about City's chance of winning the treble. "In the Premier League we are close. We know we need one more game and I would say we play against our neighbors (Manchester United) in EPL and against an Italian team (Internazionale) in FA Cup final. The season is really, really good, now we have to lift it. We are close and of course we are going to try. We are there, we can think about it, we can visualize it. We are three games away. One each of the competitions, we can do it."

Commenting on his players' sparkling show at Etihad, the legendary coach explained, "I had the feeling these last days that we had a mix of calm and tension to play this type of game. But after 10 or 15 minutes, I had the feeling that all the pain that we had during one year from what happened last season was there today. It was so hard and tough last season. In that moment, we had to swallow poison and football and sport always gives you another chance. When the draw was Madrid, I said 'Yeah I want it.' I wanted it because I think today everything was there."

Other side of the coin was filled with sobs and somber naturally. Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti admitted it was a painful night but Manchester City deserved to win. He said in a post-match media inter-action, "They played better than us and deserved to win."They put a lot of pressure at the beginning, it worked out well for them because they made it very difficult for us to get the ball in play and they went two goals ahead. From then on, it was difficult to get back into the game. We tried in the second half, but it did not work out."

City has not lost at the Etihad in 26 Champions League matches. They are on a 23-game unbeaten streak in all competitions, peaking at the perfect time, playing the most destructive football of the Pep Guardiola era. It was yet another statement and they will be hot favorites to beat Internazionale in the final.