City à Paris

Manchester City last night moved themselves one step closer to a place in this years UEFA Champions League semi-finals. City will be taking a 2-2 draw back to the Etihad next week when they go up against PSG in a winner takes all second leg. Some consider the Citizens lucky after last night, I myself believe we put in a good performance against a very strong Champions League opponent. Joe Hart saved a Zlatan penalty and we watched as he once again blazed over the bar from close range, but if we consider City lucky because PSG missed a couple of good opportunities, then we can consider every team to ever play a game lucky. This is football, you either take your chances or you see them go begging. Week in week out we see missed chances.

Manchester City last night executed a game plan very well I thought and if it wasn't for two poor defensive moments, we could of won the game, however given the overall stats of the game a draw is a fair result. City broke from their half for the first goal, which saw a perfectly weighted pass from Fernandinho, find the feet of the Ginger Prince, who you wouldn't think has missed the last two months of the season. With two goals and an assist in his first two games back, City are being shown just how much they have missed him and will be wondering where we would possibly be if he hadn't have been injured. However, It was only moments later when a calamity in defence saw Fernando allow Zlatan to get his foot to the ball as he scrambled under pressure to clear and the end result was the ball rolling into the back of an empty net.

The question is, who was at fault for the goal? Should Joe have passed out wide or thumped it up field with Zlatan closing in on Fernando already? Or should Fernando have been more aware of his surroundings? In my opinion, they are both at fault and this is a situation which should not happen at the highest level.

But in spite of two poor defensive moments, the second allowing Rabiot to finish from close range as Hart only parried into his path, Fernandinho scored a deflected shot from close range to give us a vitally important 2nd away goal and puts us in a strong position going into next weeks second leg. There is still plenty of work to do at the Etihad, lets not forget our opponents are Paris Saint Germain. I believe most fans would have taken a 2-2 draw at the start of this game. The question is, can City put this game to bed and progress to the semi-finals for the first time in their history? One thing's for sure, is that City never make it easy for themselves.