City reaches Champions semis
LONDON: Manchester City’s dream of a fourtrophy haul is still alive after it beat Borussia Dortmund 21 in Germany to reach the semifinals of the Champions League for the first time in six years.
But Liverpool’s hopes of joining its Premier League rival in the last four disappeared yesterday after a goalless draw in its quarterfinal second leg against Real Madrid. The Spanish champion progressed 31 on aggregate.
Pep Guardiola’s City, which is set to win the league title and is contending in three cup competitions, was shocked to go a goal down in the 15th minute, as Jude Bellingham became the youngest English goalscorer in the Champions League.
City responded well and went close to equalising before the break through Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
But a 55thminute penalty from Mahrez, after Emre Can was adjudged to have handled, and a leftfoot thunderbolt on 76 minutes from Foden, who scored City’s winner in the firstleg victory, rewarded its dominance and secured a 42 aggregate triumph.
City, eliminated in the quarters in the previous three years, faces a semifinal tie with last year’s finalist Paris SaintGermain, which knocked out the defending champion Bayern Munich on Wednesday, while 13time winner Real Madrid will face another English challenge against Chelsea, after seeing off Liverpool.
The Reds had to apologise for a window of Real’s team bus being smashed by fans on their arrival at Anfield before starting strongly into their comeback attempt.
Liverpool, the 2019 Champions League winner, created enough chances in the opening 45 minutes to have turned the tie around but it ran out of ideas in the second half.
Mohamed Salah hit goalkeeper Thibault Courtois’ outstretched left leg from 10 metres just two minutes in, and the Belgian made another big save from James Milner’s curling effort.
Real almost wrapped up the the tie when Karim Benzema’s deflected effort beat Alisson Becker but came back off the post.
Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum also went close but could not create a similar comeback as two years ago, when Liverpool ousted Barcelona 40 after losing 30 in Spain.
Juergen Klopp’s last route to a trophy this season has now been shut off and his side is struggling to even make the Champions League places, sitting three points outside the top four with seven games to go.
Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela has been banned for 10 matches for ‘‘racist behaviour’’ in his team’s Europa League last16 match against Scottish side Rangers last month, Uefa said yesterday.
Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara complained of being racially abused by Kudela during the secondleg game, which included a melee on the pitch and clashes in the tunnel afterwards.
Kudela will also miss games for the Czech Republic in this year’s European Championship. — Reuters