City set up semi-final showdown with Real Madrid

Manchester City earned a 1-1 draw against Bayern at the Allianz Arena to set up a mouth-watering Champions League semi-final against holders Real Madrid.

Action: All the hard work had been done at the Etihad Stadium but that didn’t prevent the second leg from being an entertaining affair.

João Cancelo faced his parent club from the start while Pep Guardiola named the same starting line-up that won 3-0 in the first leg.

Bayern certainly were up for it and if it wasn’t for some poor finishing they may have had a chance of getting back into this game.

Leroy Sané (starting ahead of Sadio Mané after their alleged confrontation) was played through on goal early on but dragged his shot just wide.

For a brief second Bayern were down to ten men when Dayot Upamecano was shown a straight red card for hauling down Erling Haaland who was away on goal. Luckily for the Bayern defender, Haaland had just strayed offside and the red was rescinded. 

City were awarded a penalty for a handball by Upamecano when the defender was in the way of Ilkay Gundogan’s shot. Surprisingly, Erling Haaland skied the resulting penalty – his first miss from the spot as a Manchester City player.

Haaland made up for that in the second half though when he finished off a quick City counter-attack. Upamecano tripped at the vital moment allowing Haaland to find space in the box and fire the ball past goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

Bayern looked deflated after that goal that made it 4-0 on aggregate but they did manage to pull one goal back.

Sadio Mané – who interestingly was a second-half substitute for Leroy Sané – attempted a cross that struck the hand of Manuel Akanji from close range. VAR intervened and instructed referee Clément Turpin to have a look at the incident.

Like the first-half penalty, the decision looked harsh but Turpin pointed to the spot once again. Joshua Kimmich made no mistake from the spot though, slamming the ball down the middle with Ederson guessing the wrong way.

In the end, it was a very professional Manchester City performance, although they were lucky that Bayern weren’t more clinical in front of goal. The semi-final games against Real Madrid should be fascinating encounters with a potential final date with a Milan team that Manchester City would be heavy favourites for.

xG: Bayern Munich (2.16) 1-1 (1.61) Manchester City

Stat of the Day: This is a third consecutive Champions League semi-final for Manchester City – Manchester United and Chelsea are the only English teams to have done the same.

FULL-TIME | Through to the #UCL semi-finals! 💪

🔴 1-1 🐝 #ManCity pic.twitter.com/970kaLSU8t

— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 19, 2023