City into Champions League semi-final after hard-fought Bayern draw

Pep Guardiola’s side drew 1-1 on the night to add to our 3-0 win in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium eight days earlier.

Erling Haaland missed a first-half penalty but scored a brilliant 57th-minute strike to dent Bayern’s hopes of a turnaround.

Joshua Kimmich scored a late equaliser from the penalty spot but City moved into the Champions League semi-finals for a third successive year and set up a last-four clash with Real Madrid in May.

What happened

Pep Guardiola began with the same line-up that played so well in the first leg to hand us a strong advantage to take to Germany.

Aiming to be just the fifth team to overturn a three-goal deficit in a Champions League knockout tie, Bayern started on the front foot with winger Kingsley Coman looking the biggest threat.

He sent over a number of dangerous early crosses early but the City defence held strong and it was Yann Sommer who was the first goalkeeper called into action, smothering the ball at Bernardo’s feet after good work from Kevin De Bruyne.

Bayern’s first big chance came in the 16^th minute when they turned over the ball quickly to send Leroy Sane through on goal, and, as Ederson came out, he clipped a shot past the Brazilian but wide of the target.

A minute later, Haaland raced clear at the other end and was caught by Dayot Upamecano who was immediately shown a red card, but the decision was overturned after VAR showed the City striker was fractionally offside.

Haaland had the chance to extend City’s advantage to four goals in the 36^th minute when Ilkay Gundogan’s goalbound strike struck Upamecano on the arm and French referee Clement Turpin awarded a penalty.

But after a long delay, the Norwegian’s effort went over the bar – his first miss in eight penalties for City.

The escape energised the home fans and their team pushed for a goal before the break with a Coman snapshot batted away by Ederson while an Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting backheel was blocked by City’s defensive wall before he then got in the way of Coman’s follow-up.  

Chasing a goal to give Bayern hope left space for City to attack and we almost grabbed the opener when a quick break saw Jack Grealish release Haaland but his shot was saved by Sommer.

However, it was a rehearsal of what was to come in the 57^th minute when Haaland was released by De Bruyne’s pass, jinking past Upamecano and smashing the ball high into the top corner.  

Bayern kept pushing for an equaliser with substitute Mathys Tel having a goal disallowed for offside.

And the home side were handed a penalty in the 83^rd minute when the ball struck Manuel Akanji with Kimmich scoring from the spot.  

But Guardiola‘s side side saw out the game and celebrated with the travelling fans at the Allianz Arena at full-time. 

Man of the match

Ruben Dias’ determination to not allow Bayern Munich any hope of getting back into the tie was evident throughout the 90+ minutes.

The Portuguese defender successfully shackled Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting and was the first to give praise to his team-mates.

Dias kept going throughout and his spirit was epitomised in the dying minutes when he looked like Coman had passed him, but he stretched out to block a cross.

But the entire defence were superb and while Akanji was penalised for handball, the decision for Bayern’s penalty seemed unduly harsh.

Teams

BAYERN MUNICH XI: Sommer, Pavard (Stanisic 77), Upamecano, De Ligt, Cancelo (Davies 63), Goretzka, Kimmich, Coman, Musiala (Muller 71), Sane (Mane 64), Choupo-Moting (Tel 71)

Subs: Ulreich, Gnabry, Sarr, Blind, Gravenberch, Mazaroui, Ibrahimovic

CITY XI: Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake (Laporte 67), Rodrigo, De Bruyne (Walker 88), Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland (Alvarez 84)

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Phillips, Gómez, Mahrez, Perrone, Foden, Palmer, Lewis

PEP GUARDIOLA REACTION

“We struggled in the first half. Upamecano broke all the lines down our left side and we struggled with Coman. We were fortunate before the penalty miss, they had one or two chances and anything could happen but we defended really well.

“The finishing from Erling was really, really good. He is so young. The experience that we have in this competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do it really well. The second half was much, much better since minute one.

“We are exhausted. I don’t know how we will recover to play against Sheffield United. Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday.”

BERNARDO REACTION

“We struggled until February because we couldn’t get in that usual run we had before of winning 10-15 games in a row but now we are very consistent, we feel we have a chance in every competition and we are going for them.

“We are at that point of the season where if you drop your performance in one game you are out of a competition. It is going to be tough but we are going to work very hard to bring some titles home.

“Building win after win, that confidence, it is very important and we need to keep it that way.”

What it means

City have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League for the third successive year.

We will now face Real Madrid with the first leg in Spain on Tuesday 9 May with the return leg  at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday 17 May.

In the other half of the draw, AC Milan will face city rivals Inter for a place in the final at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on 10 June.

What’s next

Our chase for three trophies continues on Saturday when we return to action in the FA Cup.

City head to Wembley to face Championship side Sheffield United for the 16:45 (UK) kick-off.

The big games keep coming with our next game at the Etihad against leaders Arsenal in the Premier League on Wednesday, 26 April.