Diverted goal of Fernandinho gained a 2-2 draw for Manchester City against Paris St-Germain in the first leg game of their Champions League quarter-final in Paris. Kevin de Bruyne’s clinical finish put the visitors ahead after Joe Hart saved the penalty of Zlatan Ibrahimovic for PSG. Ibrahimovic benefited from Fernando’s mistake to level the score […]
The post Manchester City Earn a 2-2 Draw in Paris appeared first on Ticket4Football Official Blog.
]]>Diverted goal of Fernandinho gained a 2-2 draw for Manchester City against Paris St-Germain in the first leg game of their Champions League quarter-final in Paris. Kevin de Bruyne’s clinical finish put the visitors ahead after Joe Hart saved the penalty of Zlatan Ibrahimovic for PSG. Ibrahimovic benefited from Fernando’s mistake to level the score at the interval and Adrien Rabiot scored the second for PSG after the break to put French champions ahead. Fernandinho’s scraped attempt provided Manchester City a possibly important second away goal. PSG will visit Etihad Stadium for the second leg game on Tuesday, 12 April.
Teams who have drawn the first leg 2-2 away from home in European games have advanced on 220 out of 277 previous occasions – a 79.4% success rate. Manuel Pellegrini’s side were lucky to be in a position to rescue a draw as the delicate defence that has added to their disillusioning Premier League battle kept on looking temperamental. Their inadequacies without injured skipper and centre-back Vincent Kompany have been extensively recorded, and they have now achieved only one clean sheet in nine Champions League matches this season.
Rabiot, who had a short spell in the Manchester City youth set-up, benefited as much as possible from non-existent marking to score at the back post after Hart deflected Ibrahimovic’s header into his way. Ibrahimovic had lost a clear opportunity when through on goal, furthermore headed against the crossbar in the second half. Pellegrini may want to re-assess the 4-4-2 positioning in the second leg that saw his team press PSG high up the pitch, with left-back Gael Clichy uncovered by David Silva’s newness to his position on the left of midfield.
But Pellegrini stays in a solid position to secure a Champions League semi-final – and maybe title – for Manchester City, before being supplanted by Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola in the summer. Manchester City manager said: “A very close match right to the end. The quarter-final keeps on being open however this is a decent result for us.” We made a few imperative errors for the first goal and the second goal was offside. “In the event that we need to win, we can’t commit those sort of errors. But we are attempting to win from the first minute – it is the way we play,” he added.
The post Manchester City Earn a 2-2 Draw in Paris appeared first on Ticket4Football Official Blog.
]]>Manchester City have been drawn against French champions Paris Saint-Germain in their first ever Champions League quarter-final. City, the only British side remaining in the tournament, avoided their new incoming manager Pep Guardiola’s side Bayern Munich and holders Barcelona, who have knocked them out in the last two seasons. Barcelona will face La Liga competitors […]
The post Manchester City Face PSG in UCL Quarter Finals appeared first on Ticket4Football Official Blog.
]]>Manchester City have been drawn against French champions Paris Saint-Germain in their first ever Champions League quarter-final. City, the only British side remaining in the tournament, avoided their new incoming manager Pep Guardiola’s side Bayern Munich and holders Barcelona, who have knocked them out in the last two seasons. Barcelona will face La Liga competitors Atletico Madrid, Bayern meet Benfica, whereas Real Madrid take on Wolfsburg. The quarter-finals ties will be played on 5-6 & 12-13 April.
PSG, who have won the Ligue 1 title with eight matches left and two months ago, will host Manchester City in the first leg on Wednesday, 6 April. And they will visit Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, 12 April for the second leg. Both the teams have played against each other only once before, in a goalless draw in Manchester in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup. The two clubs are hardly identifiable from that match, when Manchester City were still in the beginnings of Sheikh Mansour’s possession and PSG almost three years away from their Qatari takeover.
Laurent Blanc’s team have gone on to control the game in France, winning four consecutive league titles. But, like City, the Parisians have not managed to win the Champions League, knocked out from the quarter-finals in each of the last three seasons. Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini, who is going to leave the club in the summer after three seasons and will be replaced by Guardiola, said there would not have been an “easy” last-eight draw for his team.
“Maybe one side has less titles than another side but they are at this point so they are entitled to be there because they eliminated other teams,” said the 62-year-old Chilean, who managed Malaga to the quarter-finals in 2013. “It is good for us to be away first – I always like to finish at home so you know always what you must do in your home ground. My point of view is that Barcelona is the only side that always create the distinction but all the other sides are all the same,” added Pellegrini.
The post Manchester City Face PSG in UCL Quarter Finals appeared first on Ticket4Football Official Blog.
]]>