Manchester City beat PSG to book place in Champions League semi-finals
Manchester City have booked their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in their history courtesy of a 3-2 aggregate victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
The Citizens came away from the first leg with a 2-2 draw, and followed that up with a 1-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium this evening to break new ground in Europe’s elite club competition.
The visitors dominated possession in the opening exchanges of the match as City sat off their opponents, but they struggled to create anything from open play and Joe Hart‘s only save of the first half came whenZlatan Ibrahimovic‘s powerful long-range free kick needed to be turned over.
City began to come back into the match as the half wore on, though, and came close twice in quick succession midway through the opening period.
Aguero would have an even better chance to break the deadlock on the half-hour mark when he was brought down inside the area by Kevin Trapp, who escaped with a yellow card for the challenge.
There was another let-off for PSG from the spot kick too as Aguero, who scored a penalty against West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, placed his finish wide of the target from 12 yards.
Even that didn’t give the lacklustre visitors a boost, though, and they gifted City another shooting chance with five minutes left of the half when Serge Aurier‘s sloppy pass went straight to Jesus Navas, who curled an effort wide of the target from just outside the area.
The uncharacteristically quiet Ibrahimovic had another chance to test Hart early in the second half when PSG were awarded a free kick 25 yards from goal, but the latest thunderbolt from the Swede was parried away by the Man City keeper.
The hosts’ first chance of the second half arrived on the hour mark when Fernando, whose mistake gifted PSG their first goal in Paris last week, got the better of Marquinhos from a corner but could only plant his header wide.
Pellegrini’s side were still comfortable at the other end from open play, but they were almost undone from a set piece when Hart was needed to turn Thiago Silva‘s header over the top.
PSG’s task was made even tougher with less than 15 minutes remaining when they fell behind on the night as De Bruyne, who opened the scoring in the first leg last week, did so again with a clinical curling finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
That left PSG needing two goals to progress, but it was the home side who came close again next as Aguero’s 25-yard effort flew a yard or so wide of the target moments after the opening goal.
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Laurent Blanc‘s men finally created their first big chance from open play with 10 minutes left when Edinson Cavani raced through on goal, but Hart prevented a nervy finish for his side by making himself big to deny the Uruguayan.
PSG did have the ball in the back of the net in the 86th minute when Ibrahimovic tucked away Maxwell‘s cross from close range, but the linesman’s flag was correctly raised to cut the celebrations short.
That proved to be the last of the goalmouth action as City comfortably saw out the game to record just their second knockout victory in the competition, consigning PSG to a quarter-final exit for the fourth consecutive year in the process.
