Hungry Man City are 'building history'

LONDON • Pep Guardiola says his Manchester City side "want more" as they marched into the Champions League semi-finals with the runaway Premier League leaders on course to win an unprecedented quadruple this season.

Phil Foden's second-half winner at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday sealed a 2-1 win in the quarter-final, second-leg match to claim a 4-2 aggregate victory and set up a clash with last year's finalists Paris Saint-Germain.

After ending their miserable run of quarter-final exits in the past three seasons and making the semi-finals for the second time in the club's history after 2015-16, Guardiola expressed his belief that City are "building history".

"I am incredibly happy for this club, for this chairman and for the fans, everyone," he said.

"For all of us, it was necessary to get to the semi-finals and now we want more. It's time to celebrate and drink a lot of wine, then prepare to face Chelsea (in the FA Cup semi-finals tomorrow)... It's important to keep going in this way."

By the time City travel to PSG for the first leg of their semi-final tie, they could have one of four trophies in the bag - the League Cup final with Tottenham is on April 25, three days before the Paris trip - but the Catalan vowed his players would not get ahead of themselves.

"We don't talk about winning all four - we take one game at a time," he said.

For all of City's strengths, they are not invincible and the visitors were given an early scare.

Four days after scoring his first Bundesliga goal, 17-year-old Jude Bellingham hit the back of the net for his maiden Champions League strike to become the second youngest scorer in the knockout stage behind Bojan Krkic, who was 71 days younger when he scored for Barcelona in 2008.

However, City shifted gears after the interval, with Riyad Mahrez's penalty and Foden's powerful strike - his second successive winner following his 90th-minute goal in the first leg at the Etihad - ensuring they clinched the win.

"It feels incredible. This is the second time we have got to the semi-finals, so there is not much history for our club here," said former Barca manager Guardiola, who has now reached the last four for the eighth time as a manager.

"For the club, it is so important, for all of us to get past this moment was necessary of course."

PSG are also bidding to win their first European Cup and this will be just the second time that Europe's two most prominent nouveau riche clubs are meeting each other since their 2016 quarter-final.

Guardiola has respect for Mauricio Pochettino's side after watching them eliminate "the world's best team (in Bayern Munich)" on away goals, but City are just as hungry to write history.

Foden fired the first shot on Wednesday, tweeting fellow starlet and PSG striker Kylian Mbappe: "@KMbappe are you ready?"

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS