Jack Grealish claimed it could be another century before a team dismantles Real Madrid in the way Manchester City did.
Pep Guardiola's side thumped the 14-time European champions 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium to set up a Champions League final showdown with Inter Milan on June 10.
City and England winger Grealish said: “You don’t get many teams in world football in the last 100 years that would do that to Real Madrid.
“I'm a bit speechless. These are things you just dream of when you’re growing up. To play a big part in it and play in a team – who are like brothers – is a dream come true.
“We didn’t let them breathe with our pressing. We were after them all the time and it worked. We came out on the front foot and were relentless. We had quite a few tactical changes as well, but I don’t want to go into too much detail in case the manager wants to use them in the final.”
Grealish paid tribute to the influence Guardiola has had on him and said City's players owe it to their boss to lift the Champions League trophy.
“I can’t speak highly enough of him,” said Grealish. “He’s unbelievable. I don’t think anyone comes close to him. He’s an unbelievable manager and a great guy as well. Everyone loves him. Hopefully it can continue and we can repay him by winning the final.”
City will go into the Istanbul final as strong favourites, but Grealish insists neither his team-mates nor manager will take the challenge of Inter lightly. "Every game that we play we try and dominate the ball. The manager is a genius, I’m sure he’ll watch a lot of their games and tell us bits where we can hurt them.
"We know it’ll be a tough game, probably against a team that will sit in and try and counter attack. They have a lot of experience, I watched their game last night. You don’t get to a final - well, you can get to a final with luck - but you’ve still got to be a good team and they are a good team.
"You’ve got to give them respect but we’ve got a few more important games up until then so we’ll focus on them."
On a personal level, next month's final will cap a remarkable rise through the game for Grealish, who this time four years ago, was still a Championship player.
He added: "Obviously Kyle’s [Walker] already done it but for me it’s [playing in the CL final] a dream. When you’re younger you don’t even think of that because it’s so far away but when you grow up.
"I even said it to Walker - you know when it comes up on your Snapchat memories? It was like four years ago today I was sitting at home and it was like ‘can’t wait for this, Kyle vs Neymar, going to be crazy.’ Buzzing."
