Manchester City have set up a Champions League semi-final clash against Real Madrid after Erling Haaland found the net in a 1-1 draw which secured a 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The Norwegian missed a penalty in the first half, but halfway through the second half, he pushed his way upfield and smashed the ball past Bayern goalkeeper Yann Sommer for his 48th goal in 41 games this season.
Joshua Kimmich scored a late penalty for Bayern, but the team’s inability to turn possession and chances into goals came back to haunt them.
City will be in the semifinals for the third year in a row, but they will have to play Real again, an old rival of manager Pep Guardiola’s. Last year, Real scored two late goals to break a tie and win the title.
“The semi-final again… the experience that we have in the competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do really well,” Guardiola told BT Sport.
Even though Bayern had a perfect record in the Champions League this season, they fired their coach Julian Nagelsmann and replaced him with Thomas Tuchel earlier this month. Since then, they have been knocked out of both Europe and the German Cup.
“If we can’t take positives from this match, we would have a problem,” Tuchel, whose side are only two points clear of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga title race, told DAZN.
“At the moment, City are in the best shape, with the best players in the best league in the world.”
Guardiola, who is often criticised in the Champions League for making too many changes to his team, kept the same starting lineup that won the first leg, 3-0, in Manchester.
Tuchel made two changes. He put Joao Cancelo, who was on loan from City, at right back and brought back Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who was the only known striker in the team.