Manchester City carried the Premier League baton into the semi-finals of the Champions League as late heroics from Kevin De Bruyne consigned Paris Saint-Germain to yet another quarter-final exit.
Having struck twice in the 2-2 draw in the first leg at Paris, The Manchester club were in the driving seat coming into the return leg, however, they struggled to break through the visiting defence for most of the opening 45 minutes.
To compound their misery, Sergio Aguero even missed a penalty midway, keeping the scored deadlocked at 0-0.
Les Parisians, on their part, wasted a host of opportunities to grab the lead and were eventually punished for the same when De Bruyne struck a sublime howitzer from outside the box to put the tie effectively to bed.
PSG made faint efforts for the remainder of the game to try and take something away, but there was no stopping City from entering the last four.
Let’s get to the bottom of some of the talking points from the game.
1) City starting to show Champions League pedigree
Since the takeover from the Abu Dhabi United Group, European success has been the only thing that has eluded the club. Having lifted every domestic trophy there is, the premium has slowly, yet understandably shifted on Champions League glory. However, the Skyblues never seemed up for it, stumbling against the bigwigs of Europe.
But now, after a long wait, the dream is finally starting to turn into a reality. Once mere underachievers, Manchester City have transformed themselves into one of the top European clubs after making it to the semi-finals of the premier club competition in the continent.
The odds were heavily stacked against them while being drawn against the French giants, but Manuel Pellegrini’s men just tore the script apart as they’ve started to show some Champions League pedigree.
2. PSG left to rue the missed chances
Not that City dominated the whole proceedings, but the visitors had their fair share of opportunities at goal. PSG started the game on a brighter note, keeping City on the backfoot with their attacking tilt, but squandered a host of chances. They continued to push forward even after the break, but the French giants were all steak and no sizzle.
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic not at his usual best, he was reduced to shooting at the target from set-pieces, but couldn’t find the net from even one. The likes of Adrien Rabiot, Angel Di Maria and Lucas came close to scoring but lacked the cutting edge to just pull it off.
With a quarter-final exit for the fourth year running, PSG were left to rue what might have been.
3) De Bruyne is some talent
Belgian wizard Kevin De Bruyne left Chelsea after a difficult spell to move to Wolfsburg, where his career took a massive turn. After a fair-to-middling debut season, De Bruyne came of age in the 2014/15 season, striking 16 times and assisting another 20 in 51 appearances for the Bundesliga club.
Now at Manchester City, the 24-year-old is continuing from where he left off in Germany.
Having scored the only goal of the game, De Bruyne proved to be the savior for the Citizens once again as he just keeps rolling on. Today’s goal takes his tally to 16 for the season, equalling his best ever goal return and the figures are set to soar further with a few more games left in the campaign.
The acquisition of De Bruyne has certainly been a smart one by City, and he could play a highly influential role in their fortunes for years to come.
4) Aguero needs to up the ante when it matters
Argentine pitbull Sergio Aguero has established himself as one of the best ever strikers to grace the Premier League, but the same can’t be said of him when it comes to Europe. The ex-Atletico Madrid hitman may have struck a goal or two against the bigwigs of the competition, but was found wanting today against PSG.
The penalty miss in the first-half simply summed up his day. Struggling to find his footing right from the off, Aguero could never burst to life. His usual shooting boots were missing and the 27-year-old hardly ever tested PSG’s backline.
Now with the all-important semi-finals on the horizon, City need their main man to be at his best and fire on all cylinders to help them through.
5) The going is only set to get tougher for City
So far so good, but Manchester City better be wary while stepping into uncharted waters. The atmosphere in the blue half of Manchester is understandably euphoric, but the going is only set to get tougher in the last four.
The likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are the usual suspects at this stage, and the Skyblues do not have a good record against them. Also considering they have reached this far for the first time ever, they lack the kind of experience in these situations that the aforementioned troika have.
Manchester City are of course the dark horses in the four-way race now, but history doesn’t hold them in good stead.
