Record signing De Bruyne the hero as City break through in their quest to conquer Europe

De Bruyne curled home a fine shot with 14 minutes of their last-eight tie at the Etihad Stadium remaining, securing a 1-0 victory and sending City through 3-2 on aggregate.

City put their fans through a nervy ride after Sergio Aguero missed a first-half penalty following an incident in which goalkeeper Kevin Trapp was perhaps lucky not to be sent off.

But backed by raucous fans in a club record European crowd of 53,039, Manuel Pellegrini’s men held on to seal a historic result and advanced further than they have ever been in Europe.

It was match-winner De Bruyne’s fourth goal in his last five matches and he said: “In the first half I think we already deserved to be ahead but we knew the second half was going to be a tough game and I think we played the same, created some chances and it was good that we scored.

“We’re in the semi-final now so anything can happen. We know it’s going to be a tough one but PSG wasn’t an easy one either, so we’re looking forward to it and we’ll be ready to play the half-final.”

City’s England goalkeeper Joe Hart added: “It’s an amazing night for us. We’ve worked hard in this competition. I’ve been here since the start of this Champions League run and we did struggle to start with but we started to piece together results and this speaks volumes.

“If you can stay in games then quality really does pay.

“Credit to Paris St Germain, I thought they made it a fantastic encounter. I don’t think it was ever going to finish 0-0 with the way both teams play.

“In the previous leg I think we didn’t do the Champions League service with the way that we played but in this leg I thought we really did shine and I’m really proud and happy.

“It was a fantastic performance right the way through and all 18, even the lads that weren’t on the bench, we’re getting them all fit now – Vinny’s (Kompany) fit – we’ve got a 100 per cent fit squad now.

“It’s been a difficult season but we’re going to look to finish the season on a high note.”

The atmosphere was one of the liveliest City have produced in the competition and, contrary to suggestions it might set the wrong tone, the fans’ now traditional booing of the anthem actually energised the crowd.

Aguero missed a couple of chances before he raced onto a Fernandinho pass but was brought down by goalkeeper Trapp. Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo pointed to the spot but PSG had a double reprieve first as Trapp escaped with a yellow card and then as Aguero put his spot-kick wide.

Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolas Otamendi repelled the visitors and City finally broke the deadlock after 76 minutes as De Bruyne curled a shot past Trapp.

In the other quarter-final, Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick sent Real Madrid into the semi-finals after Spanish giants overturned a first-leg deficit in a 3-2 aggregate win over Wolfsburg.