Relief for Pep Guardiola as Manchester City end Champions League jinx

Semi-final victory over PSG means Spanish manager has reached his first European Cup final since 2011

MANCHESTER CITY RATINGS: Ederson – 8. His extraordinary, incisive through ball put Zinchenko free to set up the first goal. His distribution was not always quite that solid, but he was a reassuring presence between the sticks for City. AFP

Kyle Walker – 7. Involved in little drama, but he will take that, given the result on a night when the stakes were so high. AFP

John Stones – 7. A stoic presence at the centre of City’s defence, even if it was his centre-back partner Dias who was making more of the most eye-catching blocks. AFP

Ruben Dias – 8. Bravely put his head in the way of a driven cross as PSG threatened just before half time, then again from a shot after the break. His courage inspired his team. AFP

Oleksandr Zinchenko – 9.5. Will have had his heart in his mouth before being spared a penalty for handball after a VAR referral. Was celebrating not long after as he played a key role in City’s opener. Fully justified his selection in place of Cancelo. He was outstanding. EPA

Fernandinho – 7. Evaded an early booking despite a string of fouls. Which is standard. He played a small but important role in tempering Zinchenko when the game was won but PSG were losing their heads. AFP

Ilkay Gundogan – 6. Made a timely interception when Di Maria was threatening to shoot just before the break, but was unusually lacking in influence in the midfield battle. AFP

Bernardo Silva – 6. His laxness in possession provided a chance for Di Maria to level, and he was lucky the former Manchester United midfielder shot wide. Outshone by his colleagues. AFP

Riyad Mahrez – 8. Made no mistake when De Bruyne’s blocked shot fell to him in the 11th minute. Perky throughout as he gave Diallo a torrid night. Ideally placed to double his tally. EPA

Phil Foden – 9. Took a little time to warm to the task, but was purring by the time the interval arrived, notably with a fine mazy dribble. Magnificent wing play to set up Mahrez’s second, and was in his element as the game opened up. EPA

Kevin de Bruyne – 8. Perfectly assured just when his side needed him. Played an inch perfect pass for Foden to cross for Mahrez’s second goal. AFP

SUB: Gabriel Jesus – NA. Not much time to do anything significant, but lucky to emerge unscathed after a reckless lunge from Kimpembe. AFP

SUB: Raheem Sterling – NA. Arrived late to the party, and tried his best to add to the celebrations, but his attempts at quick passes were traded with tiring teammates. Reuters

SUB: Sergio Aguero – NA. Made an appearance on his farewell tour, but it felt more sentimental than purposeful. Reuters

PSG RATINGS: Keylor Navas – 6. Kept out a shot from Mahrez with his legs from a similar position to which he was beaten when City took the lead. Dealt with a testing Foden shot at the start of the second half. EPA

Presnel Kimpembe – 6. Got treatment for a head knock in the first half. Had his socks around his ankles and looked exhausted by the end. Lucky only to see yellow for a wild hack at Jesus. Reuters

Marquinhos – 7. Made a dominant leap and should have levelled the score on the night, but saw his header hit the bar. Tried to raise his side, but by the end needed to keep a lid on their tempers instead. AFP

Abdou Diallo – 5. Had plenty of opportunities to cross in dangerous positions, but wasted each of them. Started the second phase in lacklustre fashion with an unnecessary foul on Mahrez. AFP

Alessando Florenzi – 5. Caught out of position by Ederson’s pass to Zinchenko for the opener, which earned the wrath of his manager. Subbed once the game had gone. AFP

Marco Verratti – 7. His scheming was part of the reason that the away side dominated possession of the ball in the first half, but he was petulant once it became obvious the tie was lost. EPA

Leandro Paredes – 6. Seldom featured in anything progressive or creative, and mostly spotted when there was squabbling going on. Reuters

Mauro Icardi – 3. No-one can replicate Mbappe’s pace, but Icardi often seemed unwilling to even try to break or press quickly. It felt like his side were playing with a player less while he was on. AFP

Neymar – 7. Without his regular foil – Mbappe, who was benched with an injury – alongside him, he looked less willing, or maybe able, to pick passes. EPA

Angel Di Maria – 4. Saw his shot from range go inches wide when he had the goal at his mercy after dispossessing Silva. Lost his head when he stamped on Fernandinho, and deservedly saw red. EPA

Ander Herrera – 7. Bolted around furiously trying to drive PSG back into the tie. Booked for a puerile response to being denied a free kick. Substituted for fear he was about to turn that into red. Reuters

SUB: Moise Kean – NA. The on-loan Everton striker had no chance to make an impression after coming on for the ineffectual Icardi, Reuters

SUB: Julian Draxler – NA. The German forward was scarcely spotted after coming on when the tie was as good as lost already. EPA

SUB: Danilo – NA. Brought on apparently to calm PSG’s recklessness – only to be cautioned for an ugly challenge on Jesus. AFP

SUB: Colin Dagba – NA. Got an appearance fee, but little else after he was brought on late in the day. EPA

SUB: Mitchel Bakker – NA. Not enough time to make a notable contribution, other than to blunt Mahrez’s chance of netting a third. EPA

In his faraway eyes, as he trudged down the tunnel at the Etihad, Angel Di Maria concealed a stack of painful memories.

He had let himself and his Paris Saint-Germain colleagues down and lost his head in the face of Manchester City’s calm resilience. With his ill-tempered stamp on Fernandinho, Di Maria became the second PSG player in the semi-final tie against Manchester City to be sent off. He recognised his team was on its way to elimination.

Di Maria had been in this dispiriting zone before, some 10 years earlier, exasperated by a Champions League semi slipping from his side’s grasp against a Pep Guardiola team, who, having weathered some early hurry-up from eager opponents, then exerted a control that became irresistible.

The previous time it happened to Di Maria, he was playing for Real Madrid, and they went down to 10 men – Pepe red carded – just after the hour on the way to losing 3-1 on aggregate to Guardiola’s Barcelona.

By the time that season’s final had been won, Guardiola’s team beating Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley, Pep’s Barca side were being hailed as the greatest club side in history.

What would not have been forecast back in 2011 was that Guardiola would wait a decade to reach his third European Cup final as a coach, that a manager whose brilliant reputation earned him the trust of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City would keep stumbling in the knockout phase, again and again, through eight Champions League campaigns.

Opponents have found various means to unpick Pep’s plans. There was the semi-final stymied by a crabby Chelsea in his final season at Barcelona; there were a trio successive last-four exits with a Bayern that had Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery in their pomp, then Robert Lewandowski up front.

As for the City agony in Europe, it has been extended so long it came to seem like a jinx: Monaco, Lyon, Tottenham and Liverpool were all underdogs when they knocked out Guardiola's men.

Gallery: City's run to Champions League final

Among the warming, uplifting details of an unseasonably cold night in Manchester on Tuesday was the introduction of Sergio Aguero five minutes from the end.

No City player has suffered the frustrations of the club’s peculiar battle with the knockout phase of club football’s most prestigious competition as Aguero. He was there the last time City played a semi, the bland, 1-0 aggregate loss to Real Madrid in 2016.

Guardiola took over after that, but the angst remained. Aguero scored twice and set up another in the last-16 tie against Monaco and still ended up on the wrong side of an away-goals elimination; Aguero would be hastened back from injury to try to salvage, in vain, a losing quarter-final against Liverpool the next year.

In 2019, he was entitled to believe that by setting up one goal and scoring another to put City 4-3 ahead against Tottenham Hotspur, a glass ceiling had finally been shattered. Spurs went through.

Last August, Aguero watched from the sidelines, nursing an injured knee as Lyon ambushed City in the last eight.

Aguero’s last official fixture with City will be the European Cup final in Istanbul, his and his club’s first. He cannot expect to start it, but, if fit, will surely be given a role if City have by the closing stages established the same command they gained over PSG by the end of an epic, riveting semi.

Aguero has heard it be pointed out more than once that, until Tuesday night, no Guardiola team had ever reached a European final without Lionel Messi propelling them there.

That argument is now closed, and the City manager can now prepare for three weeks of wider comparison between this City and Barcelona’s champions of 2009 and 2011.

City may have no Messi, but they have Kevin de Bruyne, and the defensive unit Guardiola takes into his third European Cup final as a coach will look sturdier than the ones he lined up in his first two.

In 2009, for the 2-0 win over United in Rome, suspension and injury had ruled out three senior Barcelona defenders, so Yaya Toure was corralled into a makeshift back four; two years later, Carles Puyol, the captain, did not make the starting line-up, injured.

This time, Guardiola should have John Stones in full renaissance, Kyle Walker back at his best, Oleksandr Zinchenko fresh from a performance against PSG that ranks among his finest for City and Ruben Dias celebrated as the best signing of the season.

“When the difficult times come, we step up,” said Dias, blocker and interceptor in chief through the 180 minutes against PSG, and, in his own way, the standard-bearer of a club who have emphatically consigned all those brittle, losing knockout ties to the past.

PSG 1 City 2: player ratings