Agence France-Presse
Manchester, April 13: Manchester City reached the Champions League semifinals for the first time in the history of the club after Kevin de Bruyne’s fine 76th-minute goal earned them a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) here Tuesday.
A week on from their 2-2 draw in the French capital, City saw Sergio Aguero squander a first half penalty after he had been felled by PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, but De Bruyne’s late strike settled the Etihad Stadium nerves and completed a 3-2 aggregate success.
“It’s a very great achievement for the club, not only to be in the best four teams of Europe, but also in the style of play that we never change,” said manager Manuel Pellegrini who will hand over charge to Pep Guardiola at the end of the season.
“Kevin de Bruyne is an important player for us. We deserved a goal before he scored. We dominated the game from the beginning until the end,” he added.
But it was a bitterly disappointing evening for PSG coach Laurent Blanc, who lost Thiago Motta to injury and has now seen his team eliminated in the quarterfinals four seasons in a row.
“If we analyse the two matches, in our strong moments we weren’t clinical enough,” said Blanc. “City were much more clinical and that’s why they qualified. Bravo to them. They’re a very good team – not spectacular, but very effective.”
The visitors definitely had their chances but found Joe Hart playing with a lot of heart under the City bar. He made a couple of good saves of Zlatan Ibrahimovic free-kicks and in the second session palmed away a strong Thiago Silva header.
