City move closer to long-awaited glory

After 10 years of trying and billions spent to make it possible, Manchester City are closer to winning the Champions League than they have ever been.

A come-from-behind 2-1 win away to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday has put Pep Guardiola's side in sight of the final.

The threat posed by PSG's star duo Neymar and Kylian Mbappe remains ahead of Tuesday's semi-final, second leg in Manchester, but City appear to have learned from many years of harsh lessons in Europe's premier club competition.

A clash between the French champions and soon-to-be-crowned Premier League winners was also a proxy battle between Qatar-owned PSG and Abu Dhabi-backed City. Despite changing the face of European football with their investment in the transfer market over the past decade, both clubs are still waiting for the ultimate glory of winning the Champions League.

In Guardiola's first four seasons in charge of City, setbacks in Champions League knockout ties have often deteriorated into collapses.

In another change from previous seasons, there was no surprise in Guardiola's team selection for a big Champions League tie. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has often been accused of overthinking his tactics in the latter stages of this competition, only to cause confusion among his own players.

This time he stuck by the striker-less system that has carried City to the brink of a third Premier League title in four years. The flexible front four of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva took the ball and control of the game away from PSG in the second half.

"We are good playing in a certain way, we cannot do it another way," said Guardiola, on his side's passing rhythm. "Only what I want is to be ourselves in the second game."

City took a cautious approach in the first half, and Guardiola said he did not blame them for it.

"They're a team who are able to do whatever they want because they have the quality, so that's why you play a bit cautious. You cannot win the qualification in the first leg, but you can lose it in the first leg," he told a news conference.

"I told them 'I understand you guys, I was a player myself. If you lose you lose but you have to try to play our game. What is our identity as a team without the ball and with the ball'?"

Paris St Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino said they will need to maintain their intensity levels throughout the game if they are to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Manchester City in their Champions League semi-final second leg next Tuesday.

"We were the better team in the first half but then we conceded two goals we normally don't concede," Pochettino said. "The key was that we didn't show the same energy with the ball than in the first half," Pochettino explained.

"But we are confident that we can turn this around and approach the second leg the same way. The first half showed that we were right in our approach of the game. "We just have to keep the same intensity with the ball. That's what we have to improve."

Paris St Germain were "emotional and aggressive in a stupid way", contributing to their second-half capitulation in Wednesday's 2-1 Champions League defeat at home to Manchester City, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "I must say in the second half PSG were protective and not progressive any more," Wenger told beIN SPORTS. "Is it because they were not physically capable?