HAA HAA! CITY HAVE LAST LAUGH

Foden strikes to silence £150m goal king Erling

PEP GUARDIOLA never does things the easy way in the Champions League.

And, again, they had to dig deep in a crazy rollercoaster finish which saw them get pegged back and then get a precious last-gasp winner through Phil Foden.

But it will surely still be enough to get Manchester City into the semi-finals after bailing out in the quarters in each of the last three seasons.

Maybe we have come to expect City never to do things the easy way in the Champions League, especially not under Guardiola.

City will start next week’s return leg as favourites even if Dortmund still carry a major threat through Erling Haaland (right, denied by Ederson) in attack and the prodigious talent of Jude Bellingham in midfield.

But they were still undone by Kevin De Bruyne’s brilliance as he shone again with another man-of-thematch display and the first goal. That was City’s best moment, the decisive and defining moment of the tie, and yet it will also be remembered for another refereeing disaster and VAR mix-up.

Romanian referee Ovidiu Hatega correctly chalked off one penalty decision after consulting his touchline monitor after originally pointing to the spot after Emre Can’s clumsy challenge on Rodri.

But then Hatega inexplicably disallowed Bellingham’s first-half equaliser after the England midfielder nicked the ball off Ederson’s toe.

That was a let-off for City but also showed that Dortmund may be struggling in the Bundesliga but can still have their moments and are seasoned European campaigners even if they fluffed their lines at the Etihad. Dortmund gifted City an 19th-minute lead after a horrible moment for exliverpool midfielder Can.

Playing in central defence, he played a clumsy pass and gave the ball straight to Riyad Mahrez, De Bruyne led a charge forward as City scythed through the Dortmund defence.

Foden’s low cross found Mahrez at the back post, the winger then cut it back for De Bruyne who had continued his run into the box and fired in a low shot.

Hategan then got it completely wrong soon after – and this time VAR did not step in to help. Bellingham nicked the ball off Ederson’s foot and yet it was ruled out.

It was Hategan who did not follow UEFA protocols to stop Man City’s game at CSKA Moscow in 2013 for a stadium announcement when Yaya Toure reported hearing monkey chants.

If City got away with one before half-time, they had another escape just after the restart. Mahmoud Dahoud’s slide-rule pass released Haaland, he brushed Ruben Dias aside but was denied by Ederson.

City should have got a second when De Bruyne cut the ball back for Foden but the midfielder saw his shot blocked on the line.

That miss looked to haunt them when Haaland set up Reus for a precious away goal and the away bench celebrated wildly.

But De Bruyne’s long ball launched another attack and it was Foden who popped up with a 90th-minute winner.

This will be a huge month for City with an FA Cup semifinal, the Carabao Cup final and a return leg in the Champions League. But Guardiola’s men look very well placed.