When Angel Di Maria lost his nerve and petulantly stamped on Fernandinho's foot, PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino was at a loss for words. He knew all their hopes were gone.  

Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez had just doubled his tally and sent this Champions League semifinal tie beyond PSG's reach. Di Maria's sending-off just put the final nail in the coffin of the French giants' inglorious exit. After the final whistle, a gaggle of PSG players circled Bjorn Kuipers and accused the renowned Dutch referee of insulting them. It was nothing but a pointless exercise. PSG had only themselves to blame.  

Without the injured Kylian Mbappe, who stunned the footballing world with a hat-trick in Barcelona and a brace at Bayern Munich, Neymar and his PSG teammates struggled to break down the City defense and tarnished their reputation by embracing some of football's dark arts. 

Apart from Di Maria, Marco Verratti, Presnel Kimpembe and Danilo Pereira were all booked for some ill-tempered tackles. There could have been even more red cards for PSG if Kuipers obeyed rules to the letter. 

It's been four years since PSG splashed the record-breaking $480 million on the superstar duo Neymar and Mbappe. As another campaign ended in huge disappointment, their wait for a first Champions League title still goes on. 

However, Pochettino, appointed to replace Thomas Tuchel in January, remained optimistic. "I'm proud. I congratulated Manchester City but I think we deserved more, but they were more clinical than us, they were able to score the goals they needed," he said in the press briefing. 

"I think we need to be positive. To get here and beat Barcelona and Bayern, it's a shame not to get to the final but the team will never give up, we fight," he added. "We played 10 against 11 both home and away, for 35-40 minutes, it's a huge disadvantage. Today wasn't for us."

City boss Pep Guardiola, who has won the tournament twice during his time coaching Barcelona, hailed City's historic achievement in reaching the club's first Champions League final. 

"Reaching the final is so difficult, because of the quality of opponents, the suffering in toughest moments, we had an incredible season, winning 11 [of 12 games in the competition] so we deserve to be there," he beamed. 

The night started incredibly well for PSG, who launched waves of attacks and thought they had an early penalty to get back in the tie when Oleksandr Zinchenko was punished for a handball in the box. However, Kuipers later reversed his initial decision after consulting with the VAR and watching a replay of the ball bouncing off the Ukrainian's shoulder. 

Zinchenko then again found himself in the spotlight after making a splendid run in the build-up to Mahrez's opening goal. After Marquinhos was inches away from leveling the score with a looping header, a clinical counter-attack killed off the tie on the hour mark when Mahrez found the back of the net with a fierce drive.

Mahrez, born and raised in Paris, has become the highest scoring Algerian player in the Champions League with nine goals, while City have won their last seven matches in the showpiece event, breaking the record for the longest winning run by an English team in the tournament's history. 

"Getting to the final now makes sense of what we have done in the past four or five years. Every day these guys have been consistent and this is remarkable," said a much-relieved Guardiola, whose City did not even progress beyond the last eight in his first four seasons in charge. 

Clear the last hurdle on May 29 and Guardiola will become only the sixth manager in history to have coached two clubs to European Cup success and the fourth to win the tournament three times. 

As for Di Maria and Co., there will be no second consecutive Champions League final, and to make matters worse, there is no escaping the fact that PSG are a point behind Ligue 1 leaders Lille with three matches left. The fate is cruelly out of their hands. 

More pandemonium could be on the horizon if they lose the domestic glory too.