City rescued a 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday thanks to Fernandinho’s second-half strike, the midfielder adding to Kevin De Bruyne’s opener just before the interval.
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After Adrien Rabiot put the hosts 2-1 up in the 60th minute, it looked like PSG would head to Manchester with the advantage – but Fernandinho scored a vital second away goal to turn the tide in City’s favour.
PSG owner Nasser al Khelaifi echoed a similar feeling: “It’s not the best result but the good thing is we have to go and win in Manchester”.
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.
“It’s a big game against West Brom at home – all the teams around us are playing against each other; Arsenal versus West Ham and [Manchester] United v Tottenham, so it’s more important than ever not to drop points at home”.
Aguero said that approach paid off in Paris, against a team which were touted as firm favourites by both the French and English media: “We tried to play our game and do what we had to do”.
“And unfortunately for us in the second half, the second goal of Paris Saint-Germain was absolutely offside – it was a mistake of the linesman”.
Kevin De Bruyne continued his superb form with his 14th goal of the season before Ibrahimovic poached his lucky equaliser.
Blanc remains confident PSG can progress to the semi-finals, irrespective of their underwhelming performance in the first leg, but stressed that City should not be underestimated. “There was a long way to go when it happened and there is a lot of character in the team”. But we are trying to win the game from the first minute, it is the way we play.
City relinquished the lead De Bruyne gave them too easily as Fernando’s slack pass allowed Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score.
“It’s up to us to make the away goals count”.
It was an eventful night for PSG striker Ibrahimovic, 34, who had a penalty saved by Joe Hart, missed a one-on-one opportunity and also struck the crossbar.
“It was a bad first goal to concede and we had to pull ourselves up”.
He said: “I am happy with the result”.
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“I said before the game that we always try to win from the beginning. We are making history for this club and we don’t want it to end”. In the return leg, we have to play simple football and fix what didn’t work tonight.
