City Make History

For the first time in their history, Manchester City are through to the UEFA Champions League semi-final. In a perfectly poised second leg at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, Manchester City finally showed a level of maturity with their tactics and team-work as they dumped Paris Saint-Germain out in the quarter finals. City brought a 2-2 draw home with them, giving them a light advantage going into the game with their 2 away goals. But every City fan was very aware of the task that lay ahead.

The biggest fear was whether Zlatan would get firing after a mediocre first leg performance in terms of shooting. Zlatan missed from the penalty spot and blazed over from close range in Paris, and after a round trip to Manchester, it was not his shooting form which let him down this time, it was the mere presence of Mangala who had him stationed in his back pocket for the majority of the game. The centre-back pairing of Otamendi & Mangala finally came to life as they both put in a performance to remember and stunned the critics into silence. They were composed, calm and had a good understanding between themselves, a fundamental when defending.

With Fernandinho & Fernando protecting the back four rather than playing a more attacking role, this helped us extensively. In previous years gone by we have seen City adopted a very naive and risky formation when approaching Champions League games, which has often led to ourselves being outplayed in midfield and unprotected at the back. However, with this different approach, it saw us tactically outclass PSG and spurned us on to victory.

On a recording break night for City which saw their attendance reach a high of 54,693 for a European game, we were treated to nothing short of a magnificent goal from none other than Kevin De Bruyne.The Ginger Prince (as many Citizens prefer to call him) again came up with the goods and curled home from outside the box with just under 20 minutes to go. His presence and intelligence of the game is quite remarkable and considering he is still only 24 years of age he still manages to find us match winning goals in our most important games. By far City's best signing since Sergio Aguero and hopefully we can witness many more important moments from the Belgian International. For now City fans, buckle your seatbelts and await a highly anticipated Champions League semi-final draw.