Paris Saint-Germain got what they deserved as they were knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage by Manchester City on Tuesday, admitted coach Laurent Blanc.
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The away-goals rules meant a 0-0 draw wasn’t even enough to force the game into extra time and PSG’s hopes were snuffed out when Kevin De Bruyne struck the victor from outside the area in the 76th minute.
With City sitting fourth in the Premier League standings, the 24-year-old noted how hard the competition in England is in the fight for European qualifying spots for next season.
“This season, next season, when you are in the semi-final you know you need to play against a big team in Europe, but the way we played tonight we have a chance against anyone”.
“I know we have received a lot of criticism for different reasons but I think that we are improving. We understand City probably deserve to qualify so well done”.
“We should have scored more than two goals in Paris but we didn’t”.
“Bayern Munich, if they win tomorrow, or Barcelona, Real Madrid – for me it is exactly the same”. “Of course when you win no one asks any questions”. With Yaya Toure also being fit to play, Manchester City can be seen as the favorites to win and eliminate PSG while Paris may seem too dependable on Zlatan to produce another “Zlatan moment”. We have paid the price by failing to take our chances. “We dominated the game from the beginning until the end”.
The draw for the Champions League semi-finals is on Friday, while the ties will be played on 26-27 April and 3-4 May. We did struggle to start with but we’ve started to piece together results.
“But we fell short over the two legs”.
De Bruyne was equally laid back as he reflected on City’s triumph, with his huge price tag following his move to the Etihad Stadium last summer repaid with a priceless Champions League goal. “Maybe they made some mistakes in the last game against PSG but I trust they will play on the level they can do it”.
“It’s an fantastic night for us, ” said goalkeeper Joe Hart, the only player in Tuesday’s squad who joined City before the 2008 takeover by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour.
We thought we were going to cause them more problems tonight but they were good in defence and very compact.
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“He is a player who has been very victorious in his career – won many titles, won individual awards – and that shows how important he is”.
