Zlatan Ibrahimovic can expect to face further scrutiny when Paris St Germain attempt to reach the Champions League semi-finals next week after the Swedish striker struggled to shine in a 2-2 home draw against Manchester City on Wednesday.
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Fernandinho’s 72nd minute strike levelled the scores in a thrilling showdown in the Parc des Princes to set up next Tuesday’s second leg at the Etihad.
PSG regained the lead shortly before the hour mark when Rabiot, who spent six months in City’s academy as a 13-year-old, scored his third Champions League goal this term by prodding home the rebound after Hart repelled Edinson Cavani’s header.
“We’ll see him during the week and what he improves”, Pellegrini said. “We have some good players and there is more to come from us”. “This was an important result and we are going to be very excited to play the (second) game, especially because it will be at home in front of all our fans”.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini said: “In the first half we made important mistakes that we can not make if we want to continue in the Champions League”.
City caught PSG on the break to take a 38th-minute lead via Kevin De Bruyne, after Joe Hart denied Ibrahimovic from the spot, but the latter restored parity three minutes later. We must be intelligent in that we don’t make mistakes.
But the Chilean is also aware that it would be a risk to rush back his captain, who turns 30 on Sunday and has missed three-quarters of City’s games this season with a succession of calf injuries. Real never recovered as first-half goals from Swiss defender Ricardo Rodriguez and Maximilian Arnold put the hosts 2-0 up at the Volkswagen Arena with 25 minutes gone.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic echoed his coach’s statements, telling PSG’s official website: “We made too many mistakes and Manchester City punished us”. They are a team who know how to play and how to get good results.
“But we are trying to win the game from the first minute, it is the way we play”. “But we are playing against a very hard, very good team”, he concluded.
“We have to keep that mentality for the second leg”, he said.
“I missed the biggest chance to score but scored when it was the hardest”.
With Man City scoring two vital away goals in the first leg, the onus is on PSG to perform in the 2nd leg and grab a win.
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But the headline to take from the game is that City have two away goals and are now in a great position to make the final four.
