MANCHESTER City won the second leg of an instant-classic quarterfinal 4-3 at home Wednesday, but Tottenham advanced 4-4 on aggregate thanks to the away goals rule to set up a meeting with Ajax.

More than two minutes into stoppage time, Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling slid across the field and puffed his chest to the crowd, roaring in elation. Tottenham players collapsed to the turf, some flat on their backs, forlorn and heartbroken.

From the brink of Champions League elimination, Manchester City was celebrating its passage to the semifinals.

But not for long.

As City manager Pep Guardiola was leaping on the touchline, Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir was receiving updates in his ear from the video assistant referee checking replays.

The stadium soon became hushed until the big screen flashed: “No goal. VAR. Offside.”

Guardiola threw his head in his hands, but there was nothing to argue.

When Christian Eriksen’s misplaced back-pass deflected off Bernardo Silva into the path of Sergio Aguero, the City striker was offside before setting up Sterling in the penalty area.

“It’s cruel,” Guardiola said.

There would be no eighth goal on this breathtaking night of epic drama. City’s quadruple dreams were extinguished. Guardiola, a Champions League-winning coach with Lionel Messi’s Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, failed to reach the semifinals for the sixth straight time, his third with City after three misses with Bayern Munich.

Instead, Tottenham reached to its first European Cup semifinal in 57 years and will play Ajax. Liverpool meets Barcelona following a 6-1 aggregate win over Porto, giving England multiple clubs in the semifinals for the first time since Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea in 2009.

Tottenham advanced thanks to Fernando Llorente’s hip, which nudged the ball into the net in the 73rd minute for a goal that survived a VAR review for possible handball. It was the last goal of a night that will be long remembered by clubs that lived in the shadows of larger rivals in their own cities.

And Tottenham will play the first leg against Ajax without Son Heung-min, who scored the valuable first-leg goal last week. Son scored Tottenham’s first two goals at Etihad Stadium, then picked up a booking for a foul on Kevin De Bruyne that earned him a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation.

Sterling put City ahead in just the fourth minute. Son then netted twice to put City in a position where it had to score three more goals to advance. City did just that to take a 4-2 lead, only for Llorente — and the VAR — to have the last say. “It was a very tough game, a very crazy game,” Son said. “Sometimes you are annoyed with VAR but today it is a case of, ‘Thank you and good decision.’”(SD-Agencies)