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| Man City cruises over Bayern Munich, setting up a semifinal showdown with Real Madrid. |
To advance to the Champions League quarterfinals 4-1 on aggregate, Manchester City held Bayern Munich to a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.
To continue their quest for the Champions League, City will face the current holders, Real Madrid, who have won the tournament a record 14 times.
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Bayern, who were down 3-0 from the first leg of the quarterfinal tie just over a week ago, were roared on by the enthusiastic home fans in Munich, but they were unable to capitalize on their early opportunities.
Haaland, who had previously missed a penalty in the first half, virtually put the result beyond doubt in the 57th minute by scoring on the back of a slip by Dayot Upamecano.
With only seven minutes remaining in the match, Bayern scored when Joshua Kimmich scored from the penalty spot following a handball call against Manuel Akanji. However, by that moment, the goal was merely a consolation.
A second yellow card for coach Thomas Tuchel in the final minutes sealed the fate of the German champions.
Guardiola, who coached Bayern from 2013 to 2016, said, "I am extremely thrilled to be three in a row semifinals [with City]." You saw how good Bayern is, so I had no reason to think otherwise.
"The devil is in the details in this competition. In both of these games, we were present at crucial junctures.
After making some adjustments at halftime, "we felt were much, much more in control" from the very first minute of the second half onward.
Upamecano, a defender for Bayern Munich, had a fairly interesting first half despite the lack of goals.
The central defender had already had a night to forget as referee Clement Turpin sent him him for taking down Haaland 18 minutes in. He had already put in an underwhelming display and been at fault for City's second goal a week earlier. For his and Bayern's relief, the assistant referee waved the offside flag right away, thereby overturning the red card.
However, another frightening event was soon to follow. The referee awarded a penalty and cautioned the Bayern player this time when Upamecano's arm came out from behind his back and touched Ilkay Gundogan's strike.
But after a long wait, Haaland gave Upamecano another chance when he blasted his penalty over the bar, making it his first miss in a City jersey and ending a streak of 18 consecutive penalty kick conversions (not including shootouts).
This Saturday (4/22) at 11:40 a.m. ET, you can watch Manchester City take on Sheffield United LIVE on ESPN+.
Bayern, despite Upamecano's exploits, were left frustrated by a string of near-misses as they tried to begin their comeback.
When sent through on goal with a one-on-one with Ederson in the 17th minute, former City winger Leroy Sane dinked the ball wide of the post.
Man City's goalkeeper deflected a Sane free-kick away from the post four minutes later, and the team's defenders were resolute in stopping Kingsley Coman and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting's attempts in the last seconds of the first half.
Despite numerous opportunities, "it is incredibly annoying that we didn't take the lead," Kimmich lamented. If we had scored first, I would have enjoyed to watch how the rest of the game unfolded.
Bayern had another opportunity just after the break, but Ederson made a diving save to keep out a low shot from Kingsley Coman. And in the space of a single breath, City sprinted up the other end to win the game outright.
Kevin De Bruyne advanced quickly into Bayern territory and threaded a pass to Haaland. When Upamecano fell to the ground in front of the Norwegian, he took the free opening and slammed the ball past Yann Sommer with his left foot.
The 22-year-old now has 35 career Champions League goals, making him the youngest player to ever reach that milestone, surpassing Kylian Mbappe.
Haaland's goal was more than enough to keep City on pace to become European champions for the first time, despite Kimmich scoring a penalty kick following a review for Akanji's handball.