Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany believes his side have set the standard for the rest of their season with their 3-1 win against Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday.
Manuel Pellegrini's side have never reached the Champions League quarter-finals but took a huge step towards changing that record thanks to goals from Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Yaya Toure in Ukraine.
Kompany - restored to the starting line-up along with a host of first-team stars who were rested for the FA Cup defeat to Chelsea - was delighted with their display and is relieved to be heading into a second leg with a solid advantage given their defeats to Barcelona in the last two seasons.
"It was an exceptional result away from home, we couldn't have hoped for better," he told BT Sport.
"The performance was good, a lot of high pressing, a lot of chances… 3-1 is a good result but we're not going to get carried away.
"It was a Man City performance that we'd like to see more often until the end of the season. It's the good start to the week.
"For the first time, we feel like we're going into the second tie with a good chance of going through, but we need to improve year on year.
"The main thing is, irrespective of the fact that we didn't play Barca this year, this was always going to be a difficult game. We handled it well with a lot of maturity. We looked like a team that was hungry for success."
Joe Hart made a superb save to deny Kiev goalscorer Vitaliy Buyalskiy in the closing stages, before Toure went on to curl home a brilliant third to give City a potentially pivotal two-goal advantage.
"Joe is an unbelievable keeper," Kompany said. "I don't think he was called upon too many times but when he had to he did the job well. But on the other side, we could have scored many times."
Kompany refused to give any trophy priority status, with Sunday's League Cup final against Liverpool on the horizon.
"I feel like every cup, every game is a priority," he added. "It's not easy to pick which one you'll do well in. But as long as you're in it, you should keep hoping."
