Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini’s plans to play captain Vincent Kompany in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final, second-leg against Paris St Germain could rekindle his feud with Belgium manager Marc Wilmots over the defender.
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PSG grabbed a second through Adrien Rabiot and Ibrahimovic then hit the bar in what seemed like being a long final 30 minutes for City but Fernandinho eased nerves on 72 minutes.
“So we must not talk about the semi-final because this is a very good team with very good players. We still have 90 minutes ahead of us in Manchester but this is a good result”, said the Chilean.
“We made a couple of important mistakes that allowed them to score their first goal and unfortunately for us I think the second goal was a clear offside”, added the 62-year-old.
“We tried to play our game and do what we had to do”, he said.
“It’s up to us to make the away goals count”. Two very positive teams playing against each other. “We are involved in a really important quarterfinal, trying to make history for our respective clubs”.
“It’s not easy for a team to recover but I think this team has the personality and they believe in what we do”.
Kevin De Bruyne has certainly made up for lost time following his return from a two-month spell on the sidelines. We need to go to Manchester to win, but I’m confident. “Of course you always have a risk, especially when you are coming back from an injury, but we made all the medical tests with Joe and he doesn’t have any problems to play”.
The Belgian said: “Obviously in the moment it is a little bit tough for him and everybody is a little but angry but after that it is over”.
“He’s another one of our attackers who is a top, top player and the more that are fit the better it is for us”.
Ibrahimovic, who had not missed a penalty since September 2013, admitted he could have done more to help his side, despite pouncing on a defensive error to level the score at 1-1.
“But we have shown that we can score goals away from home”.
Poor concentration cost both sides, but Fernandinho gave City the edge for next week’s second leg when he bundled the ball home after a mix-up between rightback Serge Aurier and centerback Thiago Silva in the 72nd minute.
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Ibrahimovic scored PSG’s first goal but also failed to beat Hart one-on-one, and warned that he – and PSG – will be better at the Etihad.
