Borussia Dortmund v Manchester City: Champions League quarter-final – live! – theguardian.com

Match report: Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Man City (Agg: 2-4)

Jamie Jackson knows so much about football in Manchester that if you removed his bucket hat, opened his head and looked inside, you’d see Manny from The Stone Roses and Frank Gallagher from Shameless playing head tennis. Here’s how he saw tonight’s action unfold …

“I am incredibly happy for this club, for this organisation, for our chairman, our players, our fans … for everyone,” he says in a chat with Reshmin from BT Sport. “It’s the second time we get to the semi-finals in our club, there is not much history here. We were brilliant, except for the first 10 minutes when they were good. And the last three minutes of the second half we were so good. I am incredibly happy to be in the semi-finals, the best four teams in Europe. We are going to try and arrive good and play a good game.”

How proud are you of what you’ve been able to build in this side: “This competition is nice but at the same time it is so unfair,” he says. “We are judged on it. If we go out we are a failure, the season is a disaster when you play 11 monthsd for the Premier League, for the Cups, for everything.

Look, today it was a penalty with a hand and maybe it could be not given. And we were out for a hand against Tottenham in the quarter-finals against Llorente that was not given. That is why this competition depends on these situations. But the way we played in the last three minutes of the first half and the second half was brilliant. We passed the ball and we passed the ball and we did it.”

Ilkay Gundogan: “It means a lot to be honest,” he tells BT Sport. “I think we deserve it. We are grateful for being still in a great competition, reaching the semi-finals for the first time with this team. Obviously we are very happy about it.”

On the fightback: “Today was once again about showing character. I think we didn’t play well at all in the first 15 minutes. We struggled, we were not brave enough. We were a bit scared to lose something; I think that was quite obvious. After conceding, we started to get better into the game. We were able to hold more possession, to keep the ball, create a couple of good chances in the first half.

“Our target at half-time was to come back into the game and score the first goal in the second half. We wanted to get the game back into our hands and that’s exactly what we did.”

The match in summary: Jude Bellingham put the cat among the pigeons with his fine goal after 15 minutes and it jolted Manchester City like a cattle-prod. They were scarted and a frantic half-hour ensued, with Dortmund doing extremely well to hold firm until half-time in the face of an onslaught.

Their resistance would ultimately prove futile, with Emre Can being penalised – possibly harshly, it’s difficult to tell – for a handball inside his own penalty area not long after the break. Riyad Mahrez dispatched the penalty, confirmed after a long VAR consultation and from then on there was only ever going to be one winner. Phil Foden put the tie bey0ond Dortmund swith a fine strike that went in off a post to send his side into the last four. The best team won, of that there is no doubt.

Meanwhile at Anfield: It’s finished scoreless between Real Madrid and Liverpool, which means the Spanish side goes through to the semi-final on the back of their 3-1 home win. I don’t know much of what happened there, but I did see Mo Salah miss an absolute sitter for Liverpool very early doors.

Peep! Peep! Peep! It’s all over in Germany, where Manchester City have advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League. They were deserved winners against a Dortmund side who did their best only to discover to nobody’s great surprise that it wasn’t quite good enough.

90+1 min: Into added time we go, with City looking forward to the final whistle and a semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain. About to eliminate Liverpool at Anfield, Real Madrid will meet Chelsea in the other one.

Two teams owned by tyrannies for the purposes of sportswashing, one controlled by a Russian oligarch and another the club of Franco. And to think some say romance is dead, eh?

89 min: City substitution: Raheem Sterling on for Riyad Mahrez.

87 min: City break upfield with a three-on-one but Foden’s pass to Mahrez is poorly timed and allows Akanji to intervene.

84 min: Dortmund keep plugging away even though this season’s Champions League jig is well and truly up. You can’t fault them for effort and desire, unlike Porto in their match against Chelsea last night, but City have just been too good for them.

81 min: Zinchenko sends a thunderbolt goalwards, hitting the ball so hard it really caught Marwin Hitz unawares. The goalkeeper gets in front of it and keeps it out but didn’t seem to know much about it.

80 min: Dortmund double-substitution: Stefan Tigges and Julian Brandt on for Mateu Morey and the outstanding Jude Bellingham.

79 min: Dortmund substitution just before Foden’s goal: Thorgan Hazard on, Mahmoud Dahoud off.

Phil Foden scores! It’s all over bar the shouting as Foden increases City’s lead. From the corner, the ball was played to him unmarked on the edge of the Dortmund penalty area. He unleashed a left-footed drive that went in off the right upright. Dortmund hearts are smithereened.

74 min: Kevin De Bruyne slightly scuffs a low drive after cutting in on his right foot. Marwin Hitz gets down to save.

72 min: Tiredness is setting in amongst both sets of players, as it had to. They couldn’t keep going at that pace. There’s still plenty of time for Dortmund to find an equaliser.

67 min: Bernardo Silva is penalised for a foul on Bellingham wide on the left, halfway inside the City half. Reus plays the ball into the penalty area, where Mats Hummels sends a header just over the bar. Dortmund substitution: Gio Reyna on for Ansgar Knauff.

63 min: Gundogan shoots low, hard and wide of the upright from a couple of yards outside the Dortmund penalty area.

63 min: Ilkay Gundogan gets a telling-off from referee Carlos Del Cerro Grande after shoving Bellingham twice in the chest as they debated something off the ball. I’m not sure what that was all about.

62 min: Dortmund have looked a little shell-shocked since that City goal, their secvond half plans now in tatters. They need a goal. Down near the corner flag Marco Reus shoves an in-possession Kyle Walker in the back directly in front of the linesman, who is standing about two feet away. He doesn’t signal for a free-kick, which seems odd.

58 min: From inside the Dortmund penalty area, Kevin De Bruyne slashes a wild shot wide under pressure from Reus, who had shoved him in the back a yard or two outside the penalty area causing him to lose his balance. City get a corner, but nothing comes of it.

56 min: Debate will rumble on over whether or not that penalty should have been given. The only man whose opinion matters awarded it and now the advantage is with City, who lead by the odd goal of five over the two games.

The penalty stands and Riyad Mahrez scores. He fires to the goalkeeper’s left and ripples the back of the net.

53 min: The VAR consultation goes on … the ball definitely hit his head first but his arm was outstrectched.

Emre Can heads the ball onto his own outstretched arm while leaning down to block a cross. Will it be overturned by VAR?

51 min: Hitz stretches to tip a Zinchenko shot-cross over the bar. Another corner for City. Nothing comes from the set-piece.

49 min: A Rodri cross from the right is headed clear by Mats Hummels.

48 min: City win a corner, which De Bruyne takes. From that inswinger they win another. Emre Can heads this one clear at the near post.

47 min: Kevin De Bruyne is dragged back by Mateu Moray as he tries to canter down the left flank. The ref blows for a foul but keeps his yellow card in his pocket. De Bruyne demands he give the Dortmund right-back a yellow, but the referee is not for turning. That is one side – the only side – of De Bruyne’s game I really don’t like. No doubt he’ll be devastated to learn that news.

46 min: Manchester City kick off, knowing they have to score to avoid the embarrassment – and it would be an embarrassment – of going out at this stage of the Champions League again. They also need to avoid coneding another goal on the break against one of the most lethal finishers in world football as they go in search of that goal. Fasten your seatbelts.

Peep! There’s scarcely a second of added time at the end of a first half that got off to a slow enough start but has been played at an absolute breakneck speed since Jude Bellingham put his side one up on the night and ahead on away goals across the tie.

Manchester City have fought back with terrific energy and determination, but Dortmund have defended extremely doggedly. Things are very nicely poised indeed for what could be a thrilling second half.

45 min: Akanji intercepts a looped ball over the top towards Foden with his head and clears.

43 min: Mateu Moray leathers a bouncing ball as far as he can down the pitch as Dortmund try to weather the City storm until the half-time whistle, at which point they’ll be able to have a breather and regroup.

42 min: A long range effort from Dahoud is blocked close to the source, smashing into the back of John Stones’s legs.

39 min: Jude Bellingham is booked for a rather robust challenge on Phil Foden. He’s having quite the eventful evening, is the youngster who shares his name with the patron saint of lost causes. He clearly didn’t think this tie was a lost cause when he laced up his boots tonight and is doing everything in his power to ensure his team wins it.

37 min: Mateu Morey puts the ball out for another City corner. It’s taken and a Zinchenko header doesn’t trouble Hitz unduly. Call me greedy but a second goal for Dortmund would really set this tie up for a potentially thrilling second half but only one team is looking like scoring next and it’s not the home side.

36 min: Gundogan tries to bulldoze his way through the Dortmund penalty area but meets a yellow wall of resistance as he tries to lay the ball off the Foden.

33 min: After a fairly uneventful start, we are now in the realms of the incredibly tense, the breathless and the frantic. It’s difficult to see City not scoring. They are huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf but Dortmund’s house remains intact and standing for the time being. Kevin De Bruyne is playing like a man possessed.