Manuel Pellegrini
They are still a long way from winning it, but Manchester City’s progress to their first Champions League semi-final is not just a giant step forward for the club, it should supply manager Manuel Pellegrini with enormous personal pride.
Pellegrini will not admit it, of course. He seemed to enjoy deflecting questions about what Tuesday’s win over Paris St-Germain meant to him – and for his future – preferring to talk about the club’s prospects instead.
The 62-year-old Chilean has done that a lot since City announced to the world at the start of February that he is making way for Pep Guardiola in the summer, handling any praise or criticism that comes his way with the same quiet dignity.
On Tuesday night he was given congratulations by the media for his achievements, which surely deserve more credit given the unique circumstances he finds himself in.
His replacement has already been named and given the brief of winning Europe’s elite club competition, but it is still possible that Pellegrini could win it first – and beat his successor along the way.
-Another landmark for Pellegrini-
Win or lose, Tuesday night was always going to be seen as one of the games that will define the Pellegrini’s time at City, along with the silverware he has collected.
Defeat would have ended his final chance of adding to his haul of trophies, which stands at one Premier League title and two League Cups and is viewed by some as a modest showing from three seasons at a club of City’s means.
An exit would also have increased the volume of those voices that believe the club’s faltering form in the Premier League in recent weeks has been down to the announcement Pellegrini is on his way out.
Instead, victory keeps alive City’s chances of the type of triumph that their wealthy Middle Eastern owners surely envisaged when they bought the club in 2008.
Read more here: BBC Sports
Manuel Pellegrini rewriting Champions League history at Man City
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