Brighton & Hove Albion defender Bruno insists that the side need to approach tonight’s game with Manchester City with belief and optimism.
Albion secured Premier League survival with a 1-0 win over City's arch rivals Manchester United on Friday night, and the Spaniard pointed to the Citizens’ 0-0 draw with Huddersfield Town on Sunday as being an indicator of what can be achieved against the title winners.
He said, “It’s a really difficult game because you have to have a perfect performance, but we’ve seen teams like Huddersfield draw with them recently and results like that give us extra motivation.
“It gives us belief – it was a surprising result because they’ve got a lot of top quality players, but that group also has a lot of people who’ll be looking ahead to the World Cup as well.
“We need to have the desire and positivity within the game to compete as well, winning challenges and making sure we put in a good performance for the fans.”
The Seagulls’ debut Premier League campaign opened against Pep Guardiola’s men back at the Amex Stadium in August, where the side fell to a 2-0 defeat despite competing for large spells of the contest on the south coast.
Bruno admitted that City’s success this season couldn’t have been forecast at that stage, but he emphasised the qualities that sides of that calibre possess, as well as looking ahead to the final game of the season.
“We had them in our first game of the season, and it’s fair to say that back then you couldn’t have imagined them to have gone on and had the season like they have this year.
“It’s difficult to say they were going to be that good back then, but when you play against some sides you realise how good they are in the small details.
“They [Liverpool] need a result for Champions League qualification so it will be big for them, but they also have the Champions League final the week after as well.
“They’ll want their best side out but it’s a difficult situation for them – both games will be about how we handle ourselves and we have to be professional and go out and enjoy the games.”
But for all the talk of the opposition in Albion’s two final games of the campaign, the defender was also just as keen to stress the importance of focusing on their own qualities, that have seen Albion already reach the famed 40-point mark with two games left to play.
“I’m more worried about how we approach the games and we have to be motivated, firstly to be professional and secondly to keep the momentum.
“Last year once we achieved our goal maybe things dropped off slightly, but it's quite different this season.
“The team and the manager are really focused, and we know we have to keep going now until the end of the campaign.”