Steven Gerrard has warned his U19s team they will need to bring their 'A-game, individually and collectively' if they are to progress to the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth League.

After seeing off the challenge of Manchester United in impressive fashion in the last 16, Liverpool's youngsters visit Manchester City in the quarter-finals on Wednesday afternoon (1pm GMT kick-off).

Ahead of the tie, which will take place at City's Academy Stadium, Liverpoolfc.com caught up with Gerrard to get the manager's thoughts on the task awaiting his side...

On the clash with City…

It’s a great opportunity for the players to go and impress. I’m sure there will be a lot of eyes watching on TV and I’m sure there will be a decent crowd at City’s training ground. It’s a fantastic stage, the last eight of the youth Champions League at U19 level. That should really get your juices flowing, especially with who we are playing against.

On the U19s' performances so far in the Youth League and setting high standards…

We are a good team. We’ve got good players but we’ve said to them that the further you go on in this competition the challenge will get that bit tougher. They have to improve individually and they will certainly have to bring their A-game, both individually and collectively. We know if we bring our best performance then we are confident we can get the result we want, but anything below that then we could find ourselves in trouble because everyone knows City have got talented kids throughout their Academy, and certainly at this age group they are quite strong.

On the win over United in the last 16…

The team [pleased me]. We’ve got some technical players who like to be on the ball a lot but they parked their egos and played for the team. They put a shift in without the ball and I thought we did the other side of the game fantastically well. We managed it so well when we got in front. Manchester United had a couple of moments but those moments came from us being sloppy, so as a manager that pleased me. We didn’t get cut open at any point by good play from them. We were organised, we had a game-plan and the players deserve all the credit for going and carrying that out very well.

On the challenge City will pose and his U18s' performance when the two sides played out a 1-1 draw in November…

We took the lead and we played fantastically well in the first half. We were in their faces and we were aggressive. We took the game to City, pressed them really high and forced them into mistakes. As the game went on City’s quality took over and they were the better side in the second half, so I had no complaints with the result. We had a great chance towards the end of the game to win it but it hit their 'keeper in the face and they got that bit of luck on the day. The respect is there and City, if given time and space and too much respect, will pass you off the pitch. It’s very important that we have no respect for City once that whistle goes and we go and carry our game-plan out that we have been working on for the last couple of days.

On the importance of playing as a team…

I’m not going to name any individuals we need performances from because we need it from all of them. We can’t carry a few players and you can’t carry players in the quarter-final of a Champions League competition. The level of the opposition is too good and they won’t let you get away with it, so we are going to need at least 10 players at it. We are going to need eight out of 10 performances or more from the players, it's as simple as that. Good players and good teams win quarter-finals so that is the test and the challenge for the players. Are you a good player? Can you deliver when it’s tough? If you want to be a top player at this football club you have to deliver in these moments.

On the prospect of going straight to penalties if the scores are level after 90 minutes…

You don’t have to worry about an extra 30 minutes especially if you are tired. I think that’s the right idea. Games should be won or lost in the 90 and as a player that means you can go and empty your tank and leave nothing on the pitch. There’s nothing to save yourself for, maybe a penalty, but hopefully it doesn’t get to that stage. We plan to go there and try and win it in the 90 minutes. If it goes to penalties we will deal with that then, but we’ve got a game-plan to win the game in normal time.

Follow live updates on the last-eight tie on Liverpoolfc.com. We will also have delayed coverage of the game on LFCTV and LFCTV GO