Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Already decisive scorer in the first leg (2-1), Riyad Mahrez was the executioner of a disappointing Paris SG on Tuesday, without Kylian Mbappé, in the semi-final second leg of the Champions League, scoring a double (2-0) which sends City to seventh heaven: its first Champions League final.

We can no longer stop the kid from the Parisian suburbs who clung so tightly to his dream that he is transforming his story into a scenario worthy of the best sports films.

At the Parc des Princes already, a few kilometers from Sarcelles where this dream germinated, with a free kick well helped by a wall which had disintegrated, he had offered a precious advantage to his team who had known how to bide their time.

Tuesday night, the elements broke loose before kick-off, with a long hailstorm and then a very Mancunian downpour of rain during the match, but the Algerian international delivered a glowing performance that warmed the atmosphere.

"We haven't started very well yet, we haven't had a very good first half, but we scored this goal and then we were more comfortable," he told BT after the match. Sport.

"In the second half we played a lot better, we had a lot of chances, we could have scored more. They started to lose their nerves and kicked. It's good that they got a red card. ", inflicted on Angel Di Maria, he added.

- "A guy dancing on the field" -

With his advantage, Pep Guardiola had chosen a risky strategy but ultimately paid off by letting Paris come close to his cages to better hit him in the back.

And Mahrez was the armed wing of this tactical stroke of genius.

During a good part of the match, he, the artist with the winged feet - "He's a guy who dances on the pitch", Guardiola had said of him in March -, had to do his share of dirty work by contributing to block the right side.

In remarkable physical condition at this point in the season, he was ready to lead the charges forward whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Long snubbed by the football world, he finally broke the glass ceiling by starting low, in Quimper, at the fourth level, then continuing in Le Havre, at the second level.

He then crossed the Channel to the enigmatic Leicester.

A club that doesn't say much, even to football fans, when it leaves in 2014, but it puts it on the European football map in 2016 by winning with N'Golo Kanté and Jamie Vardy, two other football UFOs , a title with the beard of the greatest, under the leadership of Claudio Ranieri.

- A special flavor -

At City, he was promised a role as a rotational player, at best, a flop, at worst.

But under Guardiola's patient guidance, he fleshed out his game, working without complaining, always eager to see higher.

In this second leg, he was twice in the right place at the right time.

The first time to resume a strike countered by Kevin de Bruyne, to slip the ball under the goalkeeper, at a closed angle, and further increase the dismay of the Parisians (1-0, 11th).

And in the second half, on a sublime counterattack, he received an offering from Phil Foden on which he did not retain his shot when it was time to put it to the bottom and to validate a little more the ticket for the final of Istanbul at the end of May (2-0, 63rd).

For him, the supporter of OM - twice severely beaten (3-0) in the pool by City - these goals necessarily have a special flavor.

The handshake with the vanquished will undoubtedly be one of the best memories of his career.

© 2021 AFP