Pep Guardiola hailed Gabriel Jesus and Kevin de Bruyne as world class after Manchester City beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

Both were exceptional as City ran out 2-1 winners in Madrid in the last 16 knockout round tie and the Blues’ boss was full of praise for Jesus who was deployed on the left as Guardiola made the decision to play without a striker.

“There is not one striker in the world to have that intensity without the ball, like Gabriel, he’s so fast and so good,” Guardiola said about Jesus’ work rate.

The City boss was also asked if midfielder De Bruyne is the best in the world after another dominant performance where he picked up another assist and a goal.

“Last year he was injured but this year he was very creative, works hard, an amazing player,” Guardiola said.

City have put themselves in a strong position to go through and Guardiola was asked if the recent UEFA ban news was used as motivation ahead of the game to inspire an impressive performance.

“No. We cannot control what happens off the pitch, only on the pitch, they want to do it,” Guardiola said. “The last years we’ve competed really well. At Anfield we were good, at Tottenham one shot on target for them.

“These players want to do it for ourselves and our fans. It’s not easy for our club, but like I said yesterday I’m so confident (of the appeal process).

“All the team can do is play good and win games, hopefully the board, the lawyers can convince UEFA we didn’t do wrong things, only nice things.”