Manchester City completed their upset victory over PSG in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League while Real Madrid overturned a 2-0 deficit from the first leg to knock off Wolfsburg.
City entered their tie with Paris Saint Germain as the heavy underdogs. The club weren’t playing well and very few gave them a chance at advancing. However, thanks to some very shaky defending from PSG in the first leg, City managed to leave Paris with a 2-2 draw. Giving them a very good chance to get through in the second leg.
After conceding two goals in the first leg, PSG would need to grab a win or score at least twice in order to advance. They had a great chance in the 16th minute when Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck a tremendous free kick, only to watch City goalkeeper Joe Hart incredibly tip it over the bar.
Controversy struck in the 29th minute when Sergio Aguero broke in on goal only to be tripped up by PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Trapp was given a yellow card, though some will argue he should have been sent off, and City were awarded a penalty. With a golden opportunity to take the lead, Aguero’s missed the penalty wide to the right.
PSG would get another great chance just after halftime in the 48th minute when they won another free kick from a dangerous position. Once again though Ibrahimovic’s strike was saved knocked away by Hart.
City would finally get their breakthrough in the 76th minute when Kevin de Bruyne, the man who has re-invigorated City since his return from a knee injury, scored on a tremendous shot from the top of the box
. The 1-0 lead for City meant that PSG would need to score twice in the final 14 minutes in order to advance. A task that proved to be too difficult.
This is Manchester City’s first ever trip to the semifinals in the competition.
Over in Spain Real Madrid were looking to reverse a shock 2-0 loss to Wolfsburg in Germany last week. It would always a tough task for the German’s to hang on to that lead as Real have been a far different team at home this year then on the road.
While Wolfsburg would be happy to sit back, defend, and try to hit Real on the break, that was always going to be a tricky strategy when the team they were inviting to attack was going to come at them with Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale.
You had the feeling before the match that Cristiano Ronaldo was going to do something special on Tuesday night, even if he had to single handily carry Real to the semifinal. That’s exactly what happened as Ronaldo opened the scoring just 16 minutes into the match. Two minutes later off of a corner, Ronaldo made it 2-0 on the night and more importantly 2-2 on aggregate. Game on.
The game was now a tense affair. If the score remained the same extra time would be needed after 90 minutes, however just one Wolfsburg goal would mean Real would need to score another two goals to advance.
There would be no extra time needed tonight though when Cristiano Ronaldo completed his hat-trick by scoring on a sensational free kick in the 77th minute. It was Ronaldo’s fifth career hat trick in the Champions League and it gave Real a 3-2 lead on aggregate.
Ronaldo’s hat trick was classic Ronaldo, scoring in the three ways he does best. His first came when he was lurking at the back post, the second on a header, and the third coming on a sensational free kick.
Real and City will await the results of Wednesday matches to find out who will be joining them in the semifinals.
