Riyad Mahrez brace fires Manchester City into Champions League Final

After years of heartbreak and disappointment, Manchester City and Pep Guardiola are into the final of the Champions League at last. The ghosts of Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon are finally behind this City side as they comprehensively beat PSG 4-1 on aggregate to book a place in the final in Istanbul. City played without fear and dominated the game for most of both legs and eventually had too many weapons and world-class players for PSG to deal with.

Taking a 2-1 away lead into the second leg, City were handed a boost an hour before kick-off with the mercurial Kylian Mbappe only listed fit enough for the bench with a calf problem. Mbappe and Neymar had formed a telepathic connection during the quarter-finals against Bayern and during the first leg and the Frenchman would be a big miss for the French champions.

PSG did start as the brighter of both teams on the icy surface at the Etihad but it was City who drew first blood thanks to a wonderful piece of work from their goalkeeper Ederson. The Brazilian played a stunning through ball from his own penalty box to release Oleksandr Zinchenko down the left flank and catch the PSG team off guard. Zinchenko then crossed the ball to De Bruyne whose blocked shot fell to the feet of Riyad Mahrez who nonchalantly slotted the ball between Keylor Navas’s legs to give City the lead. 

Following their opening strike, City were happy to keep the ball and soak up the pressure from PSG without committing too many men forward. PSG found it difficult to pry Manchester City open with the only chance of note coming from a Marquinhos header that hit the top of the crossbar. City defended admirably throughout the 90 minutes with Dias, Stones and the two full backs putting their body on the line on numerous occasions to block any PSG strike.

As the game stretched, City looked to catch PSG on the counter attack and they landed the killer blow early on in the second half. De Bruyne released Phil Foden following a PSG free kick who then laid it on a plate for Mahrez to score his second of the game from close range.

Following this second Mahrez goal, tensions started to boil in the snowy conditions in Manchester. Angel Di Maria got himself sent off with a petulant stamp on Fernandinho and two or three PSG players seemed determined to follow him in the final 20 minutes. City could have even had two or three more goals in the dying embers of the game if not for Keylor Navas in goal and the woodwork.

Pep Guardiola’s side have been the best team in Europe this season and following all their domestic success, they finally get a chance to compete for the biggest club prize of them all. This is City’s first Champions League final in history and the first for Pep Guardiola since 2011 and will face either Real Madrid or Chelsea in Istanbul in less than a month’s time.