Pep Guardiola has reached the Champions League final for the first time in a decade after his Manchester City side beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium this evening. The result means that City win the semi-final 4-1 on aggregate after winning the first leg in Paris 2-1 last week, setting themselves up to play either Chelsea or Real Madrid in the final on May 29th in Istanbul.
Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring for City in the eleventh minute, before doubling their lead in the 63rd after being assisted by Phil Foden. Former Madrid man Angel Di Maria was then sent off after losing his head six minutes later, killing any chance of a Parisian comeback. The last time Guardiola made it to the Champions League final was when he was in charge of Barcelona and he won the competition in 2009 and 2011.
He beat Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in both of those games, but will come up against two different coaches this time around. Should Chelsea advance, he’ll be facing Thomas Tuchel, while Zinedine Zidane is in charge of Madrid. Zidane, for his part, has won more Champions League titles than Guardiola, with three. Chelsea hold a slight advantage in their tie, having scored the away goal in last week’s 1-1 draw. They face off tomorrow evening in London.
