Manchester City knock off Bayern Munich to reach UCL semifinals

Manchester City held firm in their second leg quarterfinal match against Bayern Munich, earning a 1-1 draw against the German giants and reaching the Champions League semifinals on a 4-1 aggregate.

Needing to score early and often, Bayern Munich had most of the ball in the first half. When City did get ahold of it, however, they were able to create some danger though nothing the Bayern defense couldn’t stop.

Despite Bayern having the better of it, it was Manchester City who had the opportunity to draw first blood as Dayot Upamecano, who had a nightmare in the first leg, had a cross deflect off his arm, which the referee saw and awarded a penalty.

But showing he is human after all, Erling Haaland’s penalty sailed over the bar much to the delight of those in attendance and the chagrin of the Norwegian.

Still, Manchester City went into halftime with their three-goal advantage in tact.

It wouldn’t take long into the second half for Haaland to redeem himself.

Kevin De Bruyne spotted Haaland down the left and the Belgian playmaker laid the ball off. With plenty left to do, Upamecano slipped just outside the box. That was the only opening Haaland needed as he was one-on-one with Yan Sommer. Haaland took a couple of extra touches before smashing the ball into the back of the net.

Haaland’s goal pretty much saw the game off for City. Bayern continued to try to get one back to get back into the tie but City held firm. The Bavarians would ultimately manage to get one back after they were awarded a penalty after a handball by Manuel Akanji. Joshua Kimmich converted but with only seven minutes left before stoppage time, it was too little, too late.

"“I am so happy to be three in a row semifinals [with City],” Guardiola said. “I could not expect [Bayern] differently, you saw how good they are.”“In this competition it is the details. In these two games in the right moments we were there.“In the second half we adjusted some things and since minute one in the second half we felt were much, much more in control.”Source: ESPN"

Real Madrid is the team waiting for Manchester City in the semifinals. Despite City only being a recent force in the Champions League, these two sides have seen one another quite a handful of times.

The most recent was last season where it seemed like City were well on their way to knocking Madrid out before late heroics from Los Blancos saw them go through and, ultimately, win the whole thing.

Both Manchester City and Pep Guardiola will look to get over this tough hurdle and claim what has eluded for a while now, which is a Champions League trophy.