Kevin De Bruyne justified Manchester City's faith in him by scoring the winner in a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain to send Manchester City into the Champions League last four with a 3-2 aggregate success.

Having spent two-and-a-half months out with ankle and knee ligament damage, the Belgium forward secured City's place in the last four for the first time in their history by slamming home the decisive goal on 76 minutes after a 2-2 draw in the quarter-final first leg in Paris a week ago.

De Bruyne was the outstanding player on the park, and it was fitting he found the winner to succeed for City against the runaway French champions, who were too strong for Chelsea in the previous round.

There were plenty of empty seats and a palpable subdued atmosphere at the Etihad. Very odd for supposedly one of the biggest games in the hosts’ history. Inflated ticket prices might have had something to do with it.

Defences were on top right from the off – not a statement we thought we’d be penning after last week’s first leg.

However, City had the perfect opportunity to put themselves in the driving seat on the half-hour mark, but Sergio Aguero side-footed a penalty tamely wide after he was fouled by Kevin Trapp – his second miss from his last three Champions League spot-kicks.

Neither side could find their rhythm and Laurent Blanc couldn’t seem to settle on a system – made even more difficult with Thiago Motta being withdrawn through injury just before the interval.

In the second half, the quality levels remained low, with the visitors again struggling to utilise their attacking arsenal.

Just when it looked as we were set for an unexpected stalemate, the only player who has shown any real quality in the whole tie stepped up to the plate.

Nobody seemed to want to have a go at goal, so De Bruyne took it upon himself to do so, throwing a dummy before curling a sublime effort past Trapp to send the Etihad into raptures.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic did have the ball in the net, but it was ruled out for offside. Again, on the big stage, the Swede rarely produced his best.

It wasn't pretty, but City will take a first semi-final appearance in the club’s history, while the questions over the Parisiens' metal on the big occasion remain.

Pep Guardiola could be at the Etihad sooner than first thought – what a story that would be!

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