football Kevin De Bruyne downs PSG as Man City reach last four

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Manchester City reached the Champions League semi-finals for the first time after Kevin De Bruyne's fine 76th-minute goal earned them a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.

A week on from their 2-2 draw in the French capital, City saw Sergio Aguero squander a first-half penalty after he had been felled by PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, but De Bruyne's late strike settled the Etihad Stadium nerves and completed a 3-2 aggregate success.

Fifteen points off the pace in the Premier League and widely considered the tie's underdogs, City advance with hope intact that manager Manuel Pellegrini may yet bow out with a Champions League winner's medal around his neck before handing over to Pep Guardiola.

"It's a very great achievement for the club, not only to be in the best four teams of Europe, but also in the style of play that we never change," said Pellegrini.

"Kevin De Bruyne is an important player for us. We deserved a goal before he scored. We dominated the game from the beginning until the end."

But it was a bitterly disappointing evening for PSG coach Laurent Blanc, who lost Thiago Motta to injury and has now seen his team eliminated in the quarter-finals four seasons in a row.

The French champions' ambitious Qatari owners must once again content themselves with the pursuit of another domestic quadruple, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose contract expires at the end of the season, may never grace the continental stage in their colours again.

"If we analyse the two matches, in our strong moments we weren't clinical enough," said Blanc.

"City were much more clinical and that's why they qualified. Bravo to them. They're a very good team -- not spectacular, but very effective."

The burst of sky-blue tickertape that greeted the teams as they entered the pitch illustrated the importance of the occasion to both clubs, while PSG's shape at kick-off confirmed pre-match reports that they would be set out in an untested 3-4-1-2 system.