Pellegrini: Still work to do to reach semi-finals

Manchester City must not start dreaming of the Champions League semi-finals just because they scored two away goals at Paris Saint-Germain, says Manuel Pellegrini.

City rescued a 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday thanks to Fernandinho’s second-half strike, the midfielder adding to Kevin De Bruyne’s opener just before the interval.

In between the two City goals, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was gifted an equaliser by Fernando, before Adrien Rabiot gave the French champions a 2-1 lead in the quarter-final first leg.

City recovered and go into next week’s second leg in the ascendancy, but Pellegrini is not getting carried away.

“We must not talk about the semi-final, the tie is very open,” he said. “We have a difficult 90 minutes in Manchester but I’m happy about the result.

“It’s very important now to play the second leg at home not thinking we already qualify.

“They are a very good team with very good players, so after that, when we qualify we can talk about the other things.

“I don’t think we are favourites – not before this game and not after this game.

“I think that between big teams like Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, you don’t have a favourite and we must play a good game in second leg if we want to continue.”