Mbappe are you ready?
London, Thursday
The dust had barely settled on Wednesday’s quarter-final victory over Borussia Dortmund before Phil Foden was taking to social media to call out one of the Paris St-Germain men standing in the way of Manchester City and a first Champions League final appearance.
You can maybe forgive Foden for such displays of confidence. He is in the form of his life, scoring both home and away against Dortmund to help his side into the last four.
And his team-mates, manager and fans appear to share the England midfielder’s self-belief.
Ilkay Gundogan said that City had “proved they are ready to fight for the semi-finals”, manager Pep Guardiola spoke of them “building history” and City fan and former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher simply tweeted one of his ex-band’s lyrics: “I said maybeeeeeeeeeeeeee”.
BBC Sport picks through the best reaction from players, pundits and more to capture the mood surrounding Manchester City’s superb victory.
“I am incredibly happy for this club, for this chairman and for the fans, everyone,” Guardiola told BT Sport after seeing his side seal progress to only the second Champions League semi-final in their history.
It is the first they will play in under the Spaniard, with the previous occasion seeing them lose to Real Madrid in Manuel Pellegrini’s final season in charge in 2015-16.
“It is the second time in the semi-finals so it is not history in the club, but we start to build it,” continued Guardiola, whose side flirted with elimination on away goals courtesy of Jude Bellingham’s opener on Wednesday, before sealing the tie through a Riyad Mahrez penalty and Foden’s finish.
“We were brilliant except the first 10 minutes where they were good.
“I’m incredibly happy to be in the semi-finals, to be one of the best four teams in Europe, to be against big, strong teams and we will try to be good.”
Midfielder Gundogan continued on the theme, saying: “It means a lot to be honest, this club and this team deserve it.
We are grateful for being in a great competition and reaching the semi-finals for the first time with this team.
“Today once again we showed character, we didn’t play well at all in the first 15 minutes, we struggled and we weren’t brave enough and were scared to lose something.
“We know how tough this competition is. In every single game the opponents are so difficult, everyone has quality and this Dortmund team has quality and can beat anyone.
“It was about staying in the game, playing with attitude and personality especially at this stage of the competition. We proved we were ready to fight for the semi-finals.” -BBC
