Manchester City qualified for the Champions League final on Tuesday-evening at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain. After a 1-2 victory in Paris, a 2-0 victory followed in-house and that meant the seventh European victory in a row for the Pep Guardiola’s team: an English record in the European Cup / Champions League. That wasn’t the only record for that the Citizens: it is the first time in history that an English club has won eleven matches in one European Cup / Champions League season. Victory number twelve can follow on May 29 in Istanbul.
Guardiola is finally back in a Champions League final. He won his first two finals, with Barcelona in 2008/09 and 2010/11, and has since been eliminated four times in the tournament’s semi-finals. The difference of no less than ten years between two finals is not a trainer record, by the way. Louis van Gaal (1996-2010, Ajax and Bayern Munich) and Jupp Heynckes (1998-2012, Real Madrid and Bayern) have been joint leaders in that field for years. The same thing happened to Udo Lattek to Guardiola between 1977 and 1987.
View the summary of Manchester City – Paris Saint-Germain (2-0)
Manchester City are already the ninth different club from England in the European Cup / Champions League final; at least three more clubs than any other country (Germany and Italy, six clubs). Riyad Mahrez is only the second player ever to score for an English club in both semi-finals of the Champions League, after Sadio Mané for Liverpool in 2017-18. Phil Foden, in turn, is the only Manchester City player after Tuesday with double figures in goals (fourteen) and assists (ten) this season.
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