Agence France-Presse
Manchester, March 16: Injuries to centre-backs Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi overshadowed proceedings as Manchester City reached the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time after drawing 0-0 with Dynamo Kiev here Tuesday.
Leading 3-1 from last month’s away leg, Manuel Pellegrini’s side completed the job in forgettable fashion, with Jesus Navas’s shot against the post for City the nearest either side came to breaking the deadlock.
But first half injuries to captain Kompany and Otamendi cast a pall over the evening at a hushed Etihad Stadium, leaving City vulnerable in defence ahead of Sunday’s derby with Manchester United in the Premier League.
“It is a very important achievement for the club. This is a club that is growing and continuing to develop as a big institution,” said Pellegrini after the match. “Vincent unfortunately has another muscular injury in his calf, which he has had before. He will be out for at least a month. Hopefully Otamendi will recover in the next couple of days.”
While progress in the Champions League represents a historic achievement for Pellegrini, who will hand over to Pep Guardiola at the season’s end, the injuries could have a costly impact on City’s attempt to resurrect their domestic title challenge.
The start was not exactly inspiring and there were early nerves as Mangala’s missed kick from Demichelis’s pass almost let Kiev’s Lukasz Teodorczyk in on goal.
With the atmosphere affected by the double injury blow, City struggled to get going and when Navas managed to pick Sergio Aguero out with a right-wing cut-back, the Argentine miscued.
Visiting goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy made quite a few saves in the second half keeping out shots from Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero.
Meanwhile in Madrid, hosts Atletico Madrid also entered the last eight stage with a 8-7 shoot-out victory over PSV Eindhoven after both sides had failed to break the deadlock after 210 minutes spread over both the legs.
Juanfran scored the winning spot-kick as coach Diego Simone and fans erupted in joy.
The first 14 spot-kicks of the shoot-out were converted in clinical fashion before PSV’s Luciano Narsingh smashed his effort against the bar. Juanfran then stepped up to send Atletico into the last eight for the third consecutive year. “It was a heart-stopping tie,” said Juanfran.
