Manchester City reached their first Uefa Champions League final in their history after Riyad Mahrez’s double secured a 2-0 victory (4-1 on aggregate) over Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad Stadium.
Mahrez punished them again after the hour when he turned in Phil Foden’s cross at the far post to effectively end the contest.
Pep Guardiola, who reaches the Champions League final for the first time since he won the competition with Barcelona in 2011, will now lead his side against either Chelsea or Real Madrid in the final in Istanbul on Saturday, May 29.
City was in full control, avoiding further mishap to set up the Champions League final they and manager Pep Guardiola have craved, against either Chelsea or Real Madrid in Istanbul on 29 May.
Trailing 2-1 from the first leg at the Parc des Princes last week, PSG, who could only name Kylian Mbappe on the substitute’s bench, though they had a chance to cut the deficit early on after referee Bjorn Kuipers pointed to the spot for a handball against Oleksandr Zinchenko. However, Kuipers overturned his original decision after replays showed the ball clearly hit the full-back’s shoulder.
Creating history! 💙
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/oEbzuPEdFr
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 4, 2021
City’s second goal sparked plenty of PSG frustration and they finished the game with 10 men after Angel Di Maria’s kick out at Fernandinho in the 69th minute, ending any chance of a miraculous comeback as City eased to a historic victory.
City took full advantage of the reprieve as Mahrez (11) found the back of the net from a tight angle to put them in an extremely dominant position at the break.
City is the first English side to win 11 games in a single European Cup/Champions League campaign.
Nobody will be left out of revalidation, registration exercise, says Gov.Sani Bello
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City manager said:
“I’m incredibly proud and my first thoughts are with the players who didn’t play today. They all deserved to play, everyone has made a contribution and now it is time to enjoy it. We have to win the league and we have two or three weeks to prepare for the final.
“They put a lot of players in the middle and we struggled a lot in the first half to high press and we changed at half-time. We recovered the ball better in the second half and we were much better in the way we played and 4-1 on aggregate against a team that beat Barcelona and Bayern Munich means a lot to us.
“People believe it’s easy to arrive in the final of the Champions League. Getting to the final now makes sense of what we have done in the past four or five years.”
We did it. 💪🏾 Congratulations to everyone in the club. Let's keep pushing, there's a lot of work ahead. What a birthday party I had today. THANK YOU ALL 💙 pic.twitter.com/gV3Lwi8Vtw
— Fernandinho (@fernandinho) May 4, 2021
Manchester City are the ninth different English team to reach the European Cup/Champions League final.
Proud of this team! Let’s go @mancity ! Very happy to be considered man of the match! 🦈👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/mpuCGsUCy7
— Rúben Dias (@rubendias) May 4, 2021
Guardiola was brought to the Etihad Stadium to win the trophy the club’s owners wanted above all others.
City are now 90 minutes away from realising that dream.
History awaits for City in Istanbul!
