Ronaldo hat trick, City advance
Kevin de Bruyne made up for Sergio Aguero’s penalty miss to fire Manchester City into their first Champions League semi-final with a 1-0 win over PSG on Tuesday.
|||Kevin de Bruyne made up for Sergio Aguero’s penalty miss to fire Manchester City into their first Champions League semi-final with a 1-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
And at the Santiago Bernabeu, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a sensational hat trick to save Real Madrid from a 2-0 first leg defeat with a 3-0 win over Wolfsburg, which saw the 10-time champions through to the last-four once again.
In Manchester, Aguero – who had missed an earlier chance as well – was brought down inside the PSG box by goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, and the referee didn’t hesitate in pointing to the spot in the 30th minute.
But the Argentine forward pushed his right-footed effort wide to the left of Trapp to increase the tension for the over 53 000 spectators.
England goalkeeper Joe Hart kept City in the game with two excellent saves in either half from veteran Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the second of which was a sweetly-struck free kick that went through the City defensive wall in the 47th minute.
PSG defender Thiago Silva had another opportunity to put the Parisians ahead with a header into the ground from a corner after 65 minutes, but Hart was up to the challenge and tipped the ball over the bar.
With the match in the balance going into the last quarter, the energetic De Bruyne stepped up for Manuel Pellegrini’s side in the 76th minute when Fernando found the Belgian just outside the box, and De Bruyne rifled a right-footed curler past Trapp in what was City’s only shot on target.
Four minutes later, PSG front-man Edinson Cavani had a superb chance to equalise, but Hart came out to close down his space in a one-on-one duel and got a left hand to Cavani’s chip.
The City fans nearly had a heartbreaking moment when Ibrahimovic finished from close range with five minutes left, but he was correctly flagged for offside.
Now Pellegrini, who will be replaced by Pep Guardiola next season, will hope to go all the way, having already guided City to their maiden Champions League semi-final.
In Madrid, Ronaldo found a gap in the Wolfsburg wall from a free kick in the 77th minute to complete his hat trick and send Zinedine Zidane’s side to the last-four with a dramatic 3-2 aggregate victory.
The Portuguese superstar lashed in two goals in two minutes in the opening half with a cool finish on the left, which was followed by a powerful header.
But the quarter-final was locked at 2-2 at the stage, and Wolfsburg held on for another hour before Ronaldo slotted the winner to take his season’s tally to 15 in the competition and extend his leading scorers’ record to 93, 10 more than Lionel Messi.
The remaining two semi-finalists will be determined on Wednesday night, when Barcelona travel to the Vicente Calderon to face Atletico Madrid with a 2-1 first-leg lead, while German powerhouses Bayern Munich take a 1-0 advantage to Portuguese giants Benfica in Lisbon.
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@IndyCapeSport