Manuel Pellegrini salutes 'character and personality' of victorious Manchester City

ByDesmond Kane

Updated 13/04/2016 at 08:33 GMT

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has paid tribute to his side after they secured an historic place in the Champions League last four with a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain.

Watched by a crowd of over 53,000 at the Etihad Stadium, City reached the last four of Europe's biggest club tournament for the first time with a 1-0 success for a 3-2 aggregate victory over the French champions courtesy of a lovely Kevin De Bruyne winner.

[FULL MATCH REPORT: De Bruyne winner sends City into semi-finals]

It is the first time City have reached the semi-finals of the competition since they were taken over by Abu Dhabi billionaires in 2008.

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"I am very satisfied, not only because we won the game and qualified for the semi-finals, but because we won in the style of play we want. We didn't want to draw 0-0, we showed from the start we wanted to beat PSG," he told BT Sport.

"Kevin De Bruyne is an important player for us, we deserved a goal before he scored.

Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)

Image credit: AFP

We dominated that game from the beginning until the end. I trust my team so much, the penalty miss from Sergio Aguero was not the best moment. Once again, this team demonstrated the character and personality of a big team.

"I never understand the criticism we get. We beat Bayern Munich in my first season and lost against Barcelona in the round of 16.

"In the second season, we didn't play well but beat Bayern Munich again and Roma, then we lost to Barca again. This season we won the group and now we beat PSG.

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"I really don't understand the criticism or they don't understand Barcelona have better players."

City could face Real Madrid or the respective winners of Benfica versus Bayern Munich (0-1) and Barcelona's visit to Atletico Madrid (2-1) in the remaining quarter-finals which are due to conclude on Wednesday.

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