MANCHESTER: By the time Riyad Mahrez completed the counterattack that sealed Manchester City’s spot in a first Champions League final, it looked so effortless overcoming a Paris St Germain lineup that lost their cool and composure.

“Then they lost their nerve and started to kick us and it was good,” Mahrez said.

It was the Paris-born winger who netted twice at the Etihad Stadium before PSG had Angel Di Maria sent off. City won 2-0 to eliminate last season’s finalists 4-1 on aggregate on Tuesday.

“They had the red card, Mahrez said, “and after, it was more comfortable for us.”

It’s been anything but comfortable for City getting a shot at lifting European football’s top prize for the first time despite 13 years of lavish investment. Even reaching this semi-final required a fight in court to overturn a ban from this season’s Champions League for breaching UEFA’s financial rules.

And it’s only two weeks since the Abu Dhabi-owned team exposed themselves to fresh sanctions for joining a brief, ill-fated bid to split to help form a breakaway European Super League.

Now City could win the competition it tried to leave in what could be an all-English final on May 29 in Istanbul if Chelsea overcome Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, four years on from making Neymar and Kylian Mbappe the world’s two most expensive players, PSG’s wait for a first Champions League title goes on.

“Of course, we’ve invested money in the last decade since Sheikh Mansour took over the club, but it’s not just about this,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “If you want to think it’s just about money, it’s OK. But there is a lot of incredible things behind the scenes.”

It’s not just City who have endured frustration in their quest to win the biggest prize in European football. Guardiola, a Champions League winner as Barcelona coach in 2009 and 2011, has been waiting a decade to return to the final. He fell short three times with Bayern Munich and has taken until his fifth season at City to even reach the semi-finals.

“People believe it’s easy to arrive in the final of the Champions League. Getting to the final now makes sense of what we have done in the past four or five years. Every day these guys have been consistent and this is remarkable. It is for all of us and the club. I’m incredibly proud,” he said.

City are now accustomed to success, sitting on the brink of their third Premier League title in four seasons after already collecting the League Cup last month. But their only continental title came with the now-defunct European Cup Winners Cup in 1970.

“This club needed the final, these players needed the final,” City defender Kyle Walker said. “For these players to not be in a Champions League final is a disappointment every year.”

PSG missed out on a second shot at lifting a first European Cup after losing last season’s final to Bayern Munich, and Mauricio Pochettino’s side are even struggling to defend the Ligue 1 title.

“Disappointed and very sad,” said Pochettino, who lost the 2019 Champions League final as Tottenham Hotspur manager. “We played well but we didn’t have the luck that you need in football.”

And in the clash of European football’s Gulf-funded big-spenders, City had an early scare when Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers pointed to the spot after PSG’s players appealed for handball. Yet a VAR review showed that the ball had bounced legally off the top of City fullback Oleksandr Zinchenko’s shoulder and the penalty was overturned.

After scoring City’s winner in Paris last week, Mahrez took only 11 minutes to score in the second leg. The move began with a Zinchenko running onto a long ball from goalkeeper Ederson.

“It’s something we work on all the time,” Mahrez said, “and today it worked good.”

Zinchenko passed to Kevin De Bruyne, whose shot was blocked by Keylor Navas but Mahrez was alert to the rebound to put the ball through the goalkeepers legs on a field covered in the remnants of a spring hailstorm.

Yet the goal did little to settle City at the back and the visitors could have levelled five minutes later when Marquinhos headed a Di Maria cross against the bar from close range.

City almost self-destructed when Ederson, from the edge of his area, threw the ball out to Bernardo Silva who was robbed by Di Maria, but with the City keeper’s goal unguarded, the Argentine failed to find the target.

PSG keeper Keylor Navas did well to keep out a low drive from Mahrez just before the break and the Costa Rican was called on quickly after the restart to deal with a Phil Foden effort from the left.

PSG sorely missed their talented striker Mbappe who, still struggling with a calf injury, was forced to watch the match from the bench.

Without Mbappe, Neymar was rarely a danger, floating deep as he looked for the ball, but he opened up City’s defence with a jinking solo run in the 56th minute before his shot from inside the box was blocked by Zinchenko.

City put the tie beyond the French side in the 63rd minute with a classic counter-attack, as Foden burst down the left and, after a quick exchange with De Bruyne, picked out Mahrez at the back post who slotted in from close range.

“We fought to the end,” PSG midfielder Marco Verratti said. “When you play against big teams, it’s impossible to attack for 90 minutes without suffering. We have to accept that.”

The frustrations of PSG were clear, even without any crowd to create any intimidating atmosphere. The visitors finished the game with 10 men just like in the first leg after Di Maria was sent off with 20 minutes to go for kicking at Fernandinho.

PSG turned on the referee, with midfielder Ander Herrera in a post-match interview accusing Kuipers of directing an expletive at PSG team-mate Leandro Paredes. It wasn’t heard by Pochettino.

“Maybe UEFA will investigate the situation,” he said. “But now I think that is not an excuse.”

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2021