Bernardo Silva said Manchester City should not be seen as favourites to win the Champions League after their 2-1 home defeat to Lyon in their opener on Wednesday.
City, who became the first English club to lose four successive Champions League games, have never gone beyond the semifinals in the competition and, the day after Mikel Arteta labelled the squad the best in the world, Silva said City need to make big improvements after a flat performance in the defeat.
"I think we have to focus on us, especially the first half -- we were not at our best," Silva said on BT Sport after the game. "We were not good enough tonight. Unfortunately, we didn't want to start this way the competition, but it is what it is and we have to go after the next games."
Silva was then asked if the result affects the belief that they are expected to win the Champions League this season.
"Well, we're not favourites," he said. "I think we have a good team. We'll try to make better than last season, knowing that a club like Man City tries to win every competition. We're not favourites, but of course, we'll do our best to win it."
City were poor in the first half with individual errors punished by Lyon. Fabian Delph's airkick led to Maxwel Cornet's opener before Fernandinho gave the ball away for Nabil Fekir's second just before half-time.
Fernandinho could not explain City's uncharacteristic poor start but said their group, which also includes Shakhtar Donetsk and Hoffenheim, was not as easy as some people expected.
"From my point of view, it's a tough group. I never thought it was going to be easy and Lyon showed that," Fernandinho told reporters. "We had a first half to forget, with some mistakes by myself, and in the second half, we tried to take over, to recover the result, but it was too late.
"We have to be humble now and go to Hoffenheim to try to win there and the other four games as well."
Manager Pep Guardiola was missing from the touchline as he served a touchline ban after being sent off in last season's exit to Liverpool.
Mikel Arteta, who was in temporary charge, refused to blame Guardiola's absence for the defeat, and Fernandinho said doing so would be an excuse.
"I don't think [it was a problem]. We worked the last two days, focusing with him," he said. "But you have your own style of play and we play with him the whole season. It was different. The first half was very poor from us and you have to forget it."