Dealing with a goal-kick, the midfielder’s casual attempt to play a square pass on the edge of his own area was blocked into the open net by Ibrahimovic, with Hart in no position to make a save.
Advertisement
“We have a hard 90 minutes in Manchester but I’m happy about the result tonight”. We played against a very good team away from home and scored two goals.
Perhaps the 34-year-old Swede was feeling the pressure in what could be his last chance to win the Champions League, because he passed up another huge opportunity midway through the first half, blazing over after a Thiago Motta pass split the away defence.
“It’s not easy for a team to recover but this team has the personality and they believe in what we do”.
“The second goal of PSG was offside”.
“We will need to play well in Manchester to go through because they have good players and normally they like to play the same way away as they do at home”.
PSG will also be missing Blaise Matuidi and Luiz as they both picked up yellow cards and will serve suspensions.
“But it’s a game of 180 minutes”.
“What really cost us is that we made mistakes we don’t normally make”, Blanc said. “But we are playing against a very hard, very good team”, he concluded.
Hart, though, must take his fair share of the blame for passing to a defender with his back to play and Ibrahimovic in close attendance, and not scrambling to cover his goal.
Without De Bruyne, City suffered five defeats in 12 games in all competitions during the two months he was injured.
“We were risky for the whole game”.
Meanwhile in Germany, Wolfsburg shocked Real Madrid 2-0 in their Champions League quarter-final first leg, with Ricardo Rodriguez (penalty) and Maximilian Arnold scoring within seven minutes in the first half.
PSG equalised in the 41st minute via a tragic error from City.
After the match, Blanc told reporters that PSG were expecting a tough clash against Manchester City, and the English side were more efficient on the pitch as compared to Chelsea. “It was an exciting game”.
Ahead of the hour Adrien Rabiot, a former youngster at Man City for a while, had us ahead when he was left with a simple tap in having been left unmarked to follow up after England ‘keeper Hart could only parry another Ibrahimovic header to him.
“This is our main regret. That way we scored the second goal”. “I believe in my coach and my players and I’m convinced we will do it in the return leg”. “We always concede at home but in the past we’ve proven that we can score away”.
Advertisement
Hart was beaten four times by Sweden star Ibrahimovic – including an outrageous overhead kick – in an worldwide in Stockholm in November 2012, but the City man insisted revenge was not on his mind. “It was a brilliant performance from all of us and we will keep going”. “But we’ll have to do better in the second leg, much better”.
