Picking the
ball up on the edge of the D, the Belgian changed his angle of approach
and sent it on a low arc out of the reach of goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
It
was the moment City had been waiting for — not just throughout on
Tuesday night but since Sheik Mansour’s money elevated the club to
Europe’s elite.
Giants
await in the last four, but then few thought City would make it through
this round — or even out of the group after their campaign began in
typical style, a lead surrendered at home in the first match against
Juventus.
So this was a shock on several levels — not least that lovely old zero in the French half of the scoreline.
Nobody
expected a clean sheet against a Paris Saint-Germain team who knew they
had to score to progress. And while there were various imagined
scenarios around how City might battle through to the depths of this
competition, a clean sheet was not high among them.
Without
Vincent Kompany, City’s defence is credited with all the defensive
resilience of a child’s sandcastle at high tide — the presumption being
that PSG’s stellar forward line would get at least one, and City would
have to keep pace.
Instead,
they stood firm, against the odds. And while Nicolas Otamendi and
Eliaquim Mangala were not unflappable — the former made one error that
could have proved costly, while Otamendi’s passing was occasionally off —
they put in arguably their best performance as a pair in the face of
great pressure.
Once
the game entered its final quarter, the stakes grew higher for City
with every passing minute. A single goal from Paris, one successful
counter-attack, could have destroyed it all. Yet the back line — and the
outstanding Joe Hart, who made several saves that kept City in the
match — remained strong.
It
helped that PSG were a shadow of the team that eliminated Chelsea in
the previous round, with vital players including David Luiz, Marco
Verratti and Blaise Matuidi injured or suspended. Laurent Blanc was
reduced to playing an unfamiliar 3-5-2 and for long periods they lacked
the flair even of the first leg.
Yet City
deserved this. Not least because Sergio Aguero missed a penalty in the
first half, in an incident that could easily have seen Trapp sent off.
Aguerooo? Aguer-oh. Just as City prepared to celebrate an inevitable
goal from the spot, their star forward proved to be as fallible as so
many of his team-mates in a season of mixed messages and inconsistency.
Failing
to mount a significant title challenge, while going deeper than ever
before in the Champions League, City have been a puzzle in this
campaign. Desperately disappointing against any team of even middling
competence in the Premier League, they nevertheless won their Champions
League group, swept Dynamo Kiev aside in the last 16 and got a very
encouraging draw against the odds in Paris.
And
on some of those occasions, Aguero has looked magnificent. On others,
innocuous by his standards. Even so, he still gets the biggest cheer
when the teams are read out, and when he stood over the ball on the
penalty spot after 29 minutes, a 1-0 lead for City was presumed.
Yet
this is a club at which nothing can be taken for granted. Great
victories snatched in the last minute, triumph somehow crumbling to
disaster when all seemed serene. So it was here. Aguero missed and the
scores remained level. The decision not to dismiss Trapp for the foul
also rankled in retrospect.
 |
| Aguero was brought down by Paris Saint Germain goalkeeper Kevin Trapp in the 29th minute but missed the resulting penalty |
The move
began with a misplaced pass in the heart of midfield, affording City a
quick counter-attack via a through ball from Fernandinho. He picked out
Aguero, who skipped through PSG’s three-man defence and was left with
only Trapp to beat. He went round him and the goalkeeper took him out.
Not
in a way that left any doubt either. There was no outstretched hand or
arm, grasping for the ball, and no cunning leg left trailing by Aguero.
Trapp felled him feet first like a centre-half from the 1960s. It was a
surprise referee Carlos Velasco Carballo even bothered pointing to the
spot. The penalty was just presumed.
As
was the red card in many quarters, protests greeting the show of a
yellow one. The usual mitigations were advanced. Aguero was going away
from goal — yes, but only because he was taking the ball around the
goalkeeper instead of running it straight at him — and there was a
covering defender.
Maybe
so, but he wasn’t a looming presence and the odds heavily favoured
Aguero, with the ball still in his control. It deserved a red and, if
this was an example of how the new rules on double jeopardy will work,
it aptly demonstrated why they are nonsense.
FIFA think
it is unfair that a foul that gives away a penalty should also draw a
red card and a ban. They say the offender is then punished three times
for one offence.
Yet
when play continued with Trapp still on the field and the score at 0-0
after Aguero missed, it seemed bringing the player down was a gamble
worth taking. Trapp didn’t even have to make a save, Aguero striking his
shot low and wide to the right — a desperately poor effort.
Things
looked to have got even worse five minutes later when Aguero landed
awkwardly. On came the stretcher and up went the alarm but he walked to
the touchline gingerly and continued, recovering sufficiently to exert
the pressure that forced the last chance of the half.
Hustled into making a passing error, PSG inadvertently teed up Jesus Navas who hit a poor shot, wide, from a good position.
It takes
nothing from City to say PSG were disappointing. For a team desperate to
score, they had only two real chances in the opening 50 minutes, both
free-kicks from range by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The
first, roughly 30 yards out, was flicked over acrobatically by Hart.
The next, curled around the wall, gave Hart only late sight but the
England goalkeeper was equal to it.
He
made a good stop from a Thiago Silva header and, De Bruyne having
scored, Edinson Cavani broke away only for Hart to dash out and save at
his feet.
Hart
is likely to get even more action in the next round but, like City, has
waited a long time for such a privilege. He won’t mind that at all, and
neither will they.
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