Manchester City and Inter Milan qualified for the Semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, ahead of their counterparts Bayern Munich and Benfica. Manchester City played a 1-1 draw at Allianz Arena to qualify on a 4-1 aggregate over the Bundesliga giant. Also, Inter breezed past Benfica after a six goals thriller match that ended 3-3 at the San Siro Stadium. Inter qualified on a 5-3 aggregate to book a semi-final spot.
Erling Halland scored City’s only goal after missing a penalty earlier, he has now scored 35 goals in the UCL and is the fastest player to reach this feat in fewer games (27). Bayern equalized in the late minutes, but that wasn’t enough to see them through.
Inter blew away a 3-1 lead in the 78th minute after Benfica scored in the 85th and 90+5 minutes respectively to level the game at 3-3 at full time.
The Manchester City boss during a post match conference said he’s delightful after qualifying to the semi-final for the third time:
“I’m so happy for three years in a row to be in the Champions League semi-finals,” Guardiola said. “To be honest, the result of 4-1 doesn’t show what was really in the two games from my point of view.
“I couldn’t expect anything different knowing how good they are, the physicality and ideas of Bayern Munich. I was impressed when I lived with them and I was impressed when I play against them.
“But in this competition it’s the details. Last season in the semi-final of the Champions League we lived the opposite part and in the right moments in these two games, we were there
“We were incredibly solid because we defended really well in the boxes and this is the area we have improved the most comparing to previous seasons.
“We controlled it better in the second half from minute one. The only regret is that we didn’t have more sequence of passes so we could finish quicker.
“But knowing the quality of our opponent, congratulations to all at Manchester City, thank you to our fans and now we rest and play on Saturday our FA Cup semi-final [against Sheffield United].”
The first leg between Manchester City and Madrid will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday 9 May, with kick-off scheduled for 20:00 (UK).
And the second at the Etihad Stadium is to be played on Wednesday 17 May with play to begin at 20:00 (UK).
