Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain believes dominating domestic football in England is key to the club being successful in Europe. The Blues earned a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Pep Guardiola's side are yet to lift the European Cup after suffering a quarter-final defeat to Lyon last season after beating Real Madrid over two legs in the round prior. Their run to the semi-final of the competition in 2016 remains the furthest they have progressed. Begiristain expressed his delight at Guardiola's contract extension and believes City must continue to dominate domestically to find success on the European stage. "You can see (the league is more competitive) with the scores and the difficulties for everyone to win games," he told City's YouTube channel "Tottenham and Leicester are there, Everton started well and Southampton. You can see the performance of teams that in other years were battling. They are there. It means the gap from the top to the bottom has been reduced. It’s difficult. "It’s a very testing league but it has always been like this. We want to be fighting for everything – every title we are playing for – and we want to win. We always have the Champions League in mind but we want to keep winning leagues and cups to dominate in this country. If you dominate in this country, something is going to come from Europe." He added: "Pep is really happy and we are really happy with his commitment to this club for this next two years. He is already working hard as always, thinking about how to beat the opponent. I am so happy to see him here. I can’t say what (innovations) we will see. It’s always changing. It depends on the opponent. Pep studies a lot and he can see the things we have to change – there are variables."
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