Man City midfielder Bernardo Silva exudes confidence after 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich sets up mouth-watering semi-final battle with Madrid
Man City’s Erling Haaland (right) shoots to score against Bayern Munich in the UCL quarter-final second leg in Munich on Wednesday. Pic/AFP
Manchester City will face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals for the second straight season after Erling Haaland scored in a 1-1 draw which secured a 4-1 aggregate last-eight win over Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.
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Missed penalty
The Norwegian missed a first-half penalty, but muscled his way upfield midway through the second half, lashing past Bayern goalkeeper Yann Sommer for his 48th goal in 41 appearances this season. Bayern scored a late penalty through Joshua Kimmich, but were again haunted by their inability to make possession and chances count.
City will play in the semis for the third straight year, but face a rematch with manager Pep Guardiola’s old foe Real. “The semi-final again... the experience that we have in the competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do really well,” Guardiola told BT Sport.
Bernardo Silva
“We know how tough it is to face Real in this competition. We are going to go for it. We’ve always go for it, but we feel the team is very confident and I think we’re going through,” said City’s Bernardo Silva. Bayern sacked previous coach Julian Nagelsmann in favour of Thomas Tuchel earlier this month despite a perfect record in the Champions League this season, but have since been eliminated from Europe and the German Cup.
Guardiola, so often criticised in the Champions League for tinkering with his side, named the same XI that won the first leg 3-0 in Manchester. Tuchel made two changes, opting for the creativity of City loanee Joao Cancelo at full-back and bringing back Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, the only recognised striker in the squad.
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Bayern went on the attack from the outset. Leroy Sane chipped just wide on 17 minutes when through one-on-one with goalkeeper Ederson. The six-time European champions received a massive let-off just a minute later in one of City’s first attacks thanks to a narrow offside call against Haaland. Dayot Upamecano, widely criticised for a nervous first-leg performance, initially saw red for bringing down the Norwegian with the goal in sight, but the card was immediately rescinded.
An animated Tuchel received a yellow for exchanging words with the assistant referee. Upamecano was in the thick of it once more with 35 minutes gone, handballing in the box, but Haaland blasted over from the spot, only his third miss from 36 penalty attempts, and his first for City.
Haaland on target
Haaland made up for his error in the 57th minute when he burst away from Upamecano, and blasted the ball home. Bayern had the ball in the net on 73 minutes, but Mathys Tel’s goal was ruled out for offside. With seven minutes left, Kimmich converted a penalty after a Manuel Akanji handball. The winner of the City-Real tie will face either AC Milan or Inter Milan in the final in Istanbul on June 10.
48
No. of goals Man City’s Erling Haaland has scored in 41 matches
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