Roberto Mancini: 'Cup success has revived title hopes'

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has challenged his players to build on the weekend's 4-0 thrashing of Leeds United in the FA Cup.

The Italian believes that the form shown by two-goal striker Sergio Aguero and his other forwards can help the Sky Blues push Manchester United to the end.

"I hope Sergio will be like this from now to the end of the season," ESPN quotes him as saying. "If he is and our other strikers continue to score until the end, then I think the championship is not finished.

"In Italy we say a game like this is a 'brodino' - a starter. I hope it can happen that we start to win in the Premier League again.

"This is possible, but I think we should always be confident in ourselves, even when we're 12 points behind at this moment. We lost seven points in three games and this can happen for any team."

City, who have been named as the bookmakers' favourites to win the FA Cup, take on Barnsley in the quarter-finals of the competition.