Joe Hart believes Manchester City have set themselves a new Champions League benchmark after their stunning 3-1 victory at Sevilla.

– CL: Real and City through as United win
– RATE, SHARE & WIN: ValoraFutbol Fan Ratings
– FOLLOW: Live football scores around the world

City secured their place in the last 16 with two games to spare with one of their finest European performances on a superb night at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium on Tuesday.

Goals from Raheem Sterling and Fernandinho in a blistering opening 11-minute spell put City on course and Wilfried Bony secured an impressive win after Sevilla pulled one back in a brief rally.

The result took City to the top of Group D and the challenge is now to cement top spot and a more favourable draw in the knockout stages for the first time.

After some of their past struggles in the competition, the result could herald a breakthrough for City and Hart feels they have set a standard they must maintain.

“I think so, and this was the right way to play. I think we set up well, we defended well and we took our chances well. It’s pretty simple but sometimes we’ve not played to that gameplan – we’ve been a little reckless,” said the England goalkeeper.

“Vinny’s (Kompany) said it a few times, we’ve been a bit naive and been caught out, but here we’ve been really solid. They’ve only had a couple of chances and we took ours.”

Asked if the performance was City’s most accomplished in the Champions League, Hart said: “Yes, I think so, against a really confident Sevilla side who play with a lot of attacking intent.

“They were one of the teams we were supposedly going to struggle against, but that’s two wins (against them) now, we’re top of the group and we’re looking to try and win it.

“We don’t really look to make big statements – we look to win games and build on what we’re doing. We’re doing well at the moment. Without playing really well in the Premier League we’re top, and we’re top of our group now.”

It’s a different scenario compared to last season when City needed back-to-back victories over Bayern Munich and Roma to scrape into the next stage as runners-up.