THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016 SPORTS PSG left haunted by familiar feeling of failure PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain have some moment”, in Bayern Munich and Blanc was in the firing line after aban- One of those was Monaco in 2004 Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the superstar serious soul-searching to do after once Barcelona, as well as Real Madrid. doning his usual 4-3-3 formation to play while the other was Lyon, semi-finalists of this PSG project, but the Swede is again coming up short in the Those three have become regulars in with three central defenders at kick-off in 2010. But while those two surprised now 34 and has always been associat- Champions League as they exited the the last four of Europe’s elite club com- against City. many by getting so far, there is pressure ed with failure in the Champions competition at the hands of Manchester petition in recent seasons and PSG It was a gamble that backfired and on PSG to reach the last four and even League, never having won it in his oth- City on Tuesday. aspire to join them, but they came up one that followed a disappointing per- win the Champions League. erwise glittering career. A 1-0 defeat in England saw PSG lose short against a City side enduring a dis- formance in the first leg at the Parc des The question now is, what does the Ibrahimovic’s deal expires in the sum- 3-2 on aggregate as they became the appointing season in England and Princes. “In the two matches they were future hold? “The future? We have a sea- mer, while Maxwell and Gregory van der first team to lose in the quarter-finals of appearing in their first ever Champions incapable of imposing the rhythm son to finish. We have a French Cup Wiel are out of contract at the end of the the Champions League in four consecu- League quarter-final. required. It was not enough to try to win semi-final to try to win and a League season too. The club have the means tive seasons. After losing twice to Having already wrapped up a fourth a match in the quarter-finals of the Cup final to win,” Blanc said. and the desire to sign a new superstar, Barcelona and once on away goals to successive French title, PSG are still on Champions League,” Jerome Rothen, a “I know that doesn’t have the same with Neymar apparently on their wish- Chelsea in the previous three cam- course to complete a clean sweep of the former PSG player who featured in the flavour, the same excitement as the list, and Al-Khelaifi will surely be tempt- paigns, this was supposed to be the year domestic honours for the second season 2004 final for Monaco and now working Champions League but we owe it to our- ed to add new faces while keeping the Paris went one further and reached the running, but it is in Europe where they as a pundit, said on beIN Sports. selves to win them for the club. We are likes of Angel di Maria, Thiago Silva and semi-finals for the first time since being are to be judged these days given the very disappointed but we will have to Marco Verratti. taken over by Qatar Sports Investments enormous sums of money invested by SQUAD CLEAR-OUT? get over it.” The other question mark surrounds in 2011. their owners. From a French viewpoint it is a famil- Once they have done that, the club Blanc, who has done a fine job overall Before last week’s first leg against “What a fiasco” screamed the front iar failing — 12 times in the last 13 sea- may be tempted to clear the decks and and has a contract until 2018 but has City, PSG coach Laurent Blanc had spo- page headline on sports daily L’Equipe sons a French side has appeared in the freshen up the squad. Now is perhaps now been to four Champions League ken of his relief at avoiding “the two on Wednesday, as the search for some- quarter-finals, and only twice have they the time, with several leading players quarter-finals as a coach and lost ogres of European football at the one to blame began. gone further. soon out of contract. them all. —AFP Man City breakthrough shows Pellegrini still punching MANCHESTER: Manchester City’s symbolism-the other club buoyed by vast Champions League quarter-final success Middle Eastern wealth, already French over Paris Saint-Germain demonstrated champions and supposedly several devel- that reports of the team’s demise under opmental stages ahead of City, sent back to Manuel Pellegrini have been greatly exag- Paris with their tails between their legs. gerated. Pellegrini has been cast as a dead man KOMPANY, TOURE NOT MISSED walking ever since the announcement on In passing, City’s victory served to February 1 that Pep Guardiola will succeed debunk several commonly held truths him as manager at the season’s end and about their side. City, supposedly, were a City’s dwindling league form of three wins one-man team, but Sergio Aguero fluffed in eight games was held up as proof that his lines by missing a first-half penalty and his players had downed tools. it was left to De Bruyne to apply the coup Instead they pulled off the most eye- de grace with his 15th goal of an impres- catching European result since the club’s sive debut season. City were said to be too acquisition by super-rich Emirati owner dependent on a spine that has been largely Sheikh Mansour in 2008, giving Pellegrini a unchanged since 2011, but injured captain moment of sweet personal vindication. “I Vincent Kompany was, for once, not missed came to City because I had good perform- and nor was midfield colossus Yaya Toure, ances in Europe, so to leave this club with- who Pellegrini left on the bench despite out taking them to a new state would have his return to fitness after a knee problem. been a bad thing for me,” said the Chilean, Centre-backs Nicolas Otamendi and who succeeded Roberto Mancini in 2013. Eliaquim Mangala have both been “It is very important to me to be in the described as expensive failures, but even semi-finals because that is my job.” without Kompany’s steadying influence It is the third time Pellegrini, 62, has bro- they left Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson ken new ground for a club in the Cavani feeding on scraps. Goalkeeper Joe Champions League, having led Villarreal to Hart, meanwhile, produced a faultless dis- the semi-finals in 2006 and steered Malaga play, which included an alert late stop to the last eight in 2013. that prevented Cavani from giving PSG An urbane, understated figure, Pellegrini hope. “We criticised the back four, but has already brought one Premier League they were solid, as were Fernandinho and title and two League Cups to the Etihad Fernando,” said former England winger Stadium, but although it took the might of Chris Waddle, who was analysing the sec- PARIS: A picture taken yesterday shows the official Twitter account of Karim Benzema reading “unfortunately for me and for thosewho have Barcelona to oust City from the Champions ond leg for BBC radio. always backed me and supported me, I will not be selected for our Euro in France”. Embroiled in the Mathieu Valbuena sex-tape scandal, France League in his first two seasons, he has been “The Champions League suits Nicolas forward Karim Benzema will not be selected for Euro 2016, the player and the French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed yesterday. — AFP seen as something of a tactical ingenu. Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala. The Pellegrini, it was said, was too closely wed- Premier League is a hard league, it is end- ded to attacking football to achieve success to-end and tough. They played a European in Europe, but the manner of the triumph game (against PSG) and ground out a Benzema ruled out of Euro 2016 over PSG showed that City could play on result.” Friday’s semi-final draw will be the the front foot in the Champions League, latest staging post in a journey that has PARIS: Karim Benzema will not play for France at and prosper. City were sloppily defensively seen City emerge from the shadow of this year’s European Championship after his in the first leg, but scored opportunistic cross-town rivals Manchester United to national federation ruled against his return due to Dortmund blueprint serves away goals through Kevin De Bruyne and become a major European player. an ongoing legal case. Benzema is facing prelimi- Fernandinho, and their reward for refusing The strength of the opposition is formi- nary charges of conspiracy to blackmail, relating to to sit on their advantage in Tuesday’s return dable, but whatever comes to pass in the an extortion scam over a sex tape involving France Klopp in Liverpool rebuild leg was the 76th-minute De Bruyne strike next round, Pellegrini will walk away at the teammate Mathieu Valbuena. LONDON: It was perhaps inevitable that Jurgen at Bayer Leverkusen in August 2008, featuring in that sealed a 3-2 aggregate win. That PSG end of the season knowing that he has Benzema was suspended indefinitely in were their last-eight victims was rich in done his bit. —AFP Klopp’s Liverpool would produce their most the squad that faced Bayern Munich in the December pending the ongoing case, and the FFF Borussia Dortmund-like performance at the Champions League final five years later.