What we learned from Manchester City beating PSG 1-0 to advance to the Champions League semifinal

Manchester City came into this match with a surprising advantage over Paris Saint-Germain, having earned a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie. A determined performance from the English side saw them hold their French opponents at bay, while a huge goal from Kevin De Bruyne gave them a 1-0 win in the match and a 3-2 win in the tie, upsetting the odds and earning City a berth in the semifinal for the first time in their history.

The match started with Manchester City largely on top, trying to push the ball forward quickly to take advantage of PSG looking slightly unsettled in a new and different shape. The 3-5-2 that they adopted for the match to help deal with injuries, suspensions and their weaknesses from the first leg allowed them to keep City at bay, but the Parisians struggled to move the ball forward effectively themselves while they adapted to their new shape. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani were finding plenty of space against Manchester City’s defense, but PSG’s midfield struggled mightily to actually get the ball to them.

That all threatened to change when Aguero got past Aurier just before the half hour mark and goalkeeper Kevin Trapp was forced to leave his goal to make a desperation challenge to keep Aguero at bay -- but his tackle was clumsy at best, bowling the striker over and handing Manchester City a penalty, while earning himself a yellow card that could easily have been a red. Fortunately for PSG, Aguero pushed his shot wide and the scoreline stayed intact -- albeit one that would still see City go through thanks to their away goal tiebreaker.

Several minutes later, Aguero would go down clutching his knee after landing awkwardly following a challenge for a high ball. There was nothing malicious in the challenge from the PSG player Aguero went up against, the Argentine simply came down strangely with his left leg skidding out from under him. He wouldn’t leave the match, but it was clear that the incident had an impact on him as he lost a bit of that burst of pace that had been causing PSG issues earlier in the match.

PSG weren’t immune from their own injury woes, with Thiago Motta forced out of the match just before halftime with a hamstring injury that he briefly tried, and failed, to play through. Laurent Blanc responded to the loss of his most defensive midfielder in somewhat surprising fashion, throwing on a much more attacking player in Lucas Moura and abandoning the 3-5-2 that PSG had struggled with in favor of a 4-3-3, bringing Marquinhos off the back line to serve as his holding midfielder.

Paris Saint-Germain’s attack was more effective coming out into the second half thanks to those changes, with Ibrahimovic testing Joe Hart fiercely early in the half off a free kick. It was a cleverly taken strike, essentially ignoring the wall City put up to stop him and instead having Moura duck at one end of the wall to give Zlatan a shooting lane. Hart did very well to stop the shot given how late he would have seen it, but that helped set a very different tone to the second half than we had seen in the first.

City started to play a bit deeper not long after that, trying to use that away goal tiebreaker to their advantage. If the aggregate score stayed at 2-2, they would advance, so they knew that keeping PSG off the scoreboard had to be a priority. PSG in turn tried to use their more fluid attack to their advantage, even taking the extra measure of bringing on Javier Pastore in place of Aurier at the hour mark, moving Marquinhos back into defense and eschewing playing a true holding midfielder entirely.

PSG pushed harder and harder in their chase of a goal, trying to pull out all the stops to find a goal -- but it would be Manchester City that found the breakthrough in this match. After a brief spell of sustained attack from City, De Bruyne was able to work his way into a shockingly large pocket of space between PSG’s lines and fired home an absolutely gorgeous curler that Trapp was utterly helpless to stop. That turned the momentum of the game back around in Manchester’s favor and left PSG spinning in shock.

Adding to PSG’s frustrations was having a pair of goals disallowed for offsides -- one on either side of De Bruyne’s strike. Both times the attacker for the French side -- Moura on the first, Zlatan on the second -- was clearly offside despite PSG’s furious protests to the contrary. If anything, they just added to the disappointment their fans will feel after this result.

It’s a big, big win for Manchester City to take down Paris Saint-Germain in both this match and the tie, as PSG were considered fairly clear favorites after the draw. Injuries and suspensions conspired against the French giants, but full credit has to be given to Manchester for how well they played in both legs of this Champions League quarterfinal tie. They were absolutely tremendous from start to finish, doing everything they needed to do and then some to knock PSG off balance and to get the win.

Now Manchester City are in the Champions League semifinal and Manuel Pellegrini has to be looking forward to a potential matchup with Bayern Munich and the man who will be replacing him next season, Pep Guardiola. That should be fun if we get to see it.

Goals: De Bruyne (76’)

Paris Saint-Germain: Kevin Trapp; Serge Aurier (Javier Pastore 61’), Thiago Silva, Marquinhos; Gregory Van Der Wiel, Thiago Motta (Lucas Moura 43’), Adrien Rabiot, Maxwell; Angel Di Maria; Edinson Cavani, Zlatan Ibahimovic

Goals: None

Changing to a 3-5-2 to start the game was a good idea in principle for PSG given how many key midfielders and defenders were out, especially considering their struggles against Manchester City’s counter attack in the first leg. In practice, however, it wasn’t all that effective. PSG have used the formation so rarely in Laurent Blanc’s tenure that few players seemed to know where they were supposed to be at any given time and no one but their strikers looked particularly comfortable.

Moving back to the 4-3-3 after Motta’s injury should have helped, but pulling Marquinhos into a rarely played position in midfield and putting Serge Aurier into an unfamiliar spot as a central defender in a back four threw PSG for a loop when City were on the ball. They were somewhat more effective in attack, but much more exposed in defense, which is far from ideal given the situation they were in with City holding an away goal tiebreaker on aggregate.

And let’s not even talk about taking away any pretense of defense from midfield and thus leaving Kevin De Bruyne all the space he needed and then some to put a dagger in PSG. You get the feeling they would have given anything for Blaise Matuidi to not be suspended in that moment.

It’s astounding how much better City’s attack is with De Bruyne playing behind the striker than it is with anyone else they’ve tried this season while he’s been out at different times. While he’s not as purely skillful on the ball as David Silva or as powerful as Yaya Toure or as fast as Raheem Sterling, De Bruyne’s game is just so well rounded that he brings much-needed balance to Manchester’s attack, playing well off the varied elements his teammates bring off the table. He’s the glue that keeps their attack ticking over in top form and him getting the goal that won the tie for Manchester City only made sense with everything else he’s done for them.

Well, they’re done in the Champions League this season, but Paris Saint-Germain will be back in fine fashion next season. Whether or not Zlatan Ibrahimovic returns or Edinson Cavani stays on is almost irrelevant -- PSG have the resources to get another top-shelf striker and most of the core of their team is both young enough and talented enough to keep being a massive threat on the European scene for a long time to come. Adrien Rabiot played extremely well, Lucas Moura impressed after being forced into the match, Angel Di Maria is always impressive and Thiago Silva is a rock in defense. With a few tweaks and adjustments, this team could very easily be much better than the already-frightening side that they are now.