Who is favorite? Difficult to say between Paris-Saint-Germain, the vice-European champion scorer Tuesday of Bayern Munich, and Manchester City, broad leader of the English championship, also obsessed with the conquest of the Champions League.
The two powers of European football, respective properties of Qatari and Emirati rivals, have an appointment at the end of April in the semifinals of the C1, after the qualification for the last four, Wednesday April 14, of the English at the expense of Borussia Dortmund.
Manchester City won 2-1 in Germany, the same score as the first leg, to reach the semi-finals. The other poster will pit a regular, Real Madrid, who eliminated Liverpool (0-0) on Wednesday against another English club, Chelsea.
Borussia Dortmund – Manchester City (1-2)
After three consecutive quarter-final failures, Manchester City have shattered their glass ceiling and a historic quadruple is still possible for the ” sky blue “, to whom the title of champion of England seems promised. They will also play a Cup semi-final against Chelsea and, in ten days, the League Cup final against Tottenham.
In this quarter-final of the Champions League, it was Dortmund, well into the match, which found the opening in the 15e minute on an action initiated by the Norwegian pearl Haaland, and concluded by the young Jude Bellingham, 17, with a superb shot. At 1-0, Dortmund qualified. There were 75 minutes to go, against a team presented as one of the best, if not the best, in Europe in recent months.
This goal also woke up the sleeping giant. Possession, percussion, permanent danger: the eleven of Pep Guardiola quickly showed his superiority without however managing to equalize before the break. The key moment of the match came on the restart, when the Italian referee whistled a penalty for an arm of Emre Can in the box. As a symbol of City’s firepower, Mahrez turned it all into strength (1-1, 55e minute).
Once again qualified, the English controlled the match. And it is no surprise that Phil Foden concretized this domination by scoring a second goal fifteen minutes from the end, on a violent shot from the angle of the surface, which ricocheted off the upright before entering. in goal (2-1, 75e).
Pep Guardiola could rejoice: he will see a semi-final of the Champions League for the first time since 2016. He was then on the bench for Bayern Munich.
“I am incredibly happy, for this club, for this organization, for our president, for the players of course and the supporters. This is only the second time that this club has reached the semi-finals, we don’t have a very big story, but we are starting to build it ”, said after the qualification, the Spanish coach arrived in July 2016 to bring Manchester to the roof of European football.
“We saw how strong Paris SG was (…) They have very good players, they eliminated the best team in the world, Bayern Munich”, he added as the two teams face off for the first leg on April 27 or 28.
Liverpool – Real Madrid (0-0)
No one can blame them for not having tried. Beaten 3-1 in the first leg in Spain by Real Madrid, the English Liverpool failed, despite their efforts, to bring down the Spanish club coached by Zinedine Zidane, decidedly intractable when it comes to the League of champions.
” We did what it took tonight to make it through, I really mean it, consoled Liverpool midfielder James Milner. We just had to get the first goal in and it would have changed the game completely. “
The match will leave a bitter taste to the Reds because of the many opportunities left along the way, especially for Mohamed Salah whose realism was absent subscribers at the worst time. From the 2e minute, ideally served by an instantaneous deviation from Sadio Mané, the Egyptian found himself alone against Thibaut Courtois but his shot on the Belgian goalkeeper was easily kicked back. Lack of precision (41e) or spontaneity (68e), he was like a team in which the lack of confidence undoubtedly weighed heavily.
Georginio Wijnaldum (42e), Firmino (46e, 69e) and even Jota, after coming into play (70e), all had opportunities to ignite an end of the game where coach Jurgen Klopp played it all for all. But their clumsiness, or an ice-blooded Courtois, kept them from scoring the hopeful goal.
For its part, Real showed great defensive solidity, failing to really approach the opposing goals. Karim Benzema could have widened the gap on a pass to Vinicius deflected by Ozan Kabak on his post (20e) and Alisson had to work to throw himself at the feet of Vinicius, then of the French, on a rare cons well conducted (66e).
On the two matches, the Spanish qualification does not really suffer from dispute. They find the last four of the C1 for the first time since their coronation of 2018 against the Reds (3-1). The opponent promises to be tougher with a Chelsea boosted since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel at the end of January, and whose defensive strength will be the main asset.