The pep curse continues: Manchester City’s star-studded side failed to make it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tottenham Hotspur after a crazy game full of records. The City eleven were not able to make up for the 0-1 draw in the first leg with a completely crazy 4:3 (3:2) in front of their own audience against the English league rivals – in injury time, the supposed 5:3 was not recognized after video evidence.
Tottenham’s success was guaranteed by ex-Leverkusener Heung-Min Son (7th/10th) and Fernando Llorente (73rd), who scored the goal after video proof. For City, who started in the starting eleven without Leroy Sane and with Ilkay Gündogan, Raheem Sterling (4th/21st) and Bernardo Silva (11th) scored in a turbulent initial phase. After the 4:2 by Sergio Agüero (59th) City was briefly in the semi-finals, but then came Llorente.
“It was totally crazy. We let them come back into the game, but then we fought great,” said the yellow-locked Son at Sky in the semi-final first leg: “It’s very, very bad that I won’t be in the first game.”
Start coach Pep Guardiola experienced the next disappointment in the premier class. The Catalan won the Henkel pot only with FC Barcelona (2009 and 2011), after which he always failed with Bayern Munich as well as City before the final.
Tottenham, on the other hand, made history and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time, and the Londoners have reached the European semi-finals for the first time since winning the UEFA Cup in 1984. There, the Spurs will meet Ajax Amsterdam, who has already eliminated Real Madrid and Juventus Turin.
City started five weeks after the 7-0 against Schalke in the same place furios. Only 3:51 minutes were played, when Sterling after passing by Kevin de Bruyne the ball scooped into the long corner. For Manchester, it was the fastest Champions League goal in history.
And it remained historic: The ex-Leverkusener Son brought Tottenham into the lead with a lightning double pack in only 130 seconds. City now had to score three goals, the first one Bernardo Silva almost succeeded in countering. Four goals in the first eleven minutes meant another king class record. The same applied to the five goals after 21 minutes – Sterling continued with the 3:2 round.
Afterwards the encounter remained gripping, intense and full of tension. BVB conqueror Tottenham, with whom England’s international Dele Alli played despite a broken hand from the start, now stood lower, but safer. After the break, City was rewarded for his morale when De Bruyne put Agüero in perfect position with his third goal. City thought he was in the semi-finals, but then Llorente hit with his hip.
Goals: 1:0 Sterling (4.), 1:1 Son (7.), 1:2 Son (10.), 2:2 Bernardo Silva (11.), 3:2 Sterling (21.), 4:2 Agüero (59.), 4:3 Llrorente (73.)
