Man City Vs PSG 2-0: Congratulations, The Citizens To The Champions League Final!

JAKARTA - Manchester City reached its first Champions League final after defeating Paris Saint-Germain, who again had to complete the match with 10 players, with a score of 2-0 in the semi-final second leg at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Tuesday local time (Wednesday WIB) .

Riyad Mahrez, who scored one goal in the first leg, again showed his sharpness by buying up two of City's winning goals in this second leg.

The result made CIty step into the Champions League final with a 4-1 aggregate victory over PSG, Antara reported on the official UEFA website.

This marks the first time Pep Guardiola has been able to deliver City to a Champions League final since joining in 2016, as well as the Citizens 'first European final after winning the 1969/70 Cup Winners' Cup.

Although snow-covered part of the Etihad pitch, the match was heated from the start and referee Bjorn Kuipers pointed to the spot for Olexander Zinchenko's alleged handball in the City penalty box in the sixth minute.

However, the decision was immediately overturned after the Dutch referee was instructed by VAR to review the replay on the sidelines and found that the ball had actually hit Zinchenko's shoulder.

Ironically for PSG, a few moments later Zinchenko became an important actor for City who opened the scoring through Mahrez in the 11th minute.

Receiving a long pass from goalkeeper Ederson Moraes, Zinchenko swiftly forwarded it towards Kevin de Bruyne and when the Belgian legion's shot was cleared by Marquinhos, Mahrez was able to catch the bouncing ball, who thrust it into the PSG goal past the legs of Presnel Kimpembe and goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

PSG almost gave an instant reply in the 17th minute through Marquinhos, who also scored in the first leg, unfortunately, the Le Parisiens captain's header hit the crossbar.

Two minutes later, Bernardo Silva almost made a fatal mistake when he failed to control Ederson's hasty pass and the ball was snatched by Angel Di Maria, fortunately for the hosts, the Argentine winger's shot was narrowly off the side of the net.

City chose to play relatively passively since they had the advantage and relied on counter-attacks while reducing PSG's efforts.

In the second minute of first-half injury time, Mahrez almost doubled City's lead with a stab from the right, but Navas cleared his ground, forcing the first half to remain 1-0 for the hosts.

PSG entered the second half with great aggressiveness but failed to break through the City defense which actually created some neat chances, but Phil Foden's two shots were well stopped by Navas.

In the 61st minute, it was PSG's chance to equalize when Ander Herrera got a wild ball in the box, but this time Ruben Dias put the body in front of the City goal to keep out the danger.

Two minutes later, City managed a clinical counter-attack as Foden snatched a one-two with De Bruyne by sending a tug of war to Mahrez, who was free-standing at the far post area to beat Navas and score his second of the match this time around.

Failure after failure suffered by PSG led to the frustration that plagued Di Maria in the 69th minute when he looked deliberately stepping on Fernandinho's foot while taking the throw-in ball and Kuipers responded immediately by showing a red card.

The red card looks like a repeat of the advantage City earned in the first leg when they faced only 10 PSG players with 13 minutes remaining to maintain a 2-1 lead at the Parc des Princes a week ago.

Facing PSG who are now burdened with scoring three goals with 10 players on the field, City almost widened their lead in the 77th minute but Foden's shot only hit the post.

In the remaining time, City, who dominated the game, benefited from the situation of 11 against 10, appeared relatively patient despite failing to increase the winning margin, while Kylian Mbappe, who seemed to have not recovered enough, only warmed the bench to witness PSG's struggle ending in the Champions League semifinals.

City is still waiting for their opponent in the first appearance of the Champions League final in history, namely the winner of another semifinal between Chelsea vs Real Madrid who just played the second leg a day ago.