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Toure targets Champions League

By BBC
Sports News Toure targets Champions League
SEP 20, 2014 LISTEN

Yaya Toure says he wants to win the Champions League with Manchester City to repay the club's fans for their support.

The midfielder, 31, was criticised for his performance in Wednesday's 1-0 defeat at Bayern Munich - their opening match of this campaign.

Speaking to the BBC's Football Focus, Toure said: "I know the fans love me; they are always good to me.

"My target now is the Champions League. I want to win it for them."

Toure, a £24m signing from Barcelona in 2010, last year agreed a four-year contract extension keeping him at Etihad Stadium until 2017.

In May, he appeared to cast doubt on his City future when he supported his agent's claims that the Premier League champions showed him a lack of respect by failing to buy him a cake on his 31st birthday.

Toure's performance in the loss to Bayern was questioned by some, with former England midfielder Paul Scholes saying "he just did not look interested".

But City manager Manuel Pellegrini said the club will support Toure, particularly following the death of his brother in June.

"Maybe he had a lot of personal problems with his brother," said the Chilean.

"There are a lot of human things and maybe that is why he is not in his best performance at the moment.

"As a team, as a coach, as a club we must support him because he is a very important player, he makes a difference and I'm sure he will return to his best. But he is always being criticised."

Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Samir Nasri and David Silva have agreed new City contracts recently, but Toure is yet to sign a new deal.

In the last three seasons of the Champions League, City have twice been knocked out in the group stage and once in the last 16.

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