Saturday night saw Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City shocked by Lyon 3-1 in the final Quarter Final of the Champions League at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon.
On a night where City were strong favourites to progress to the semi-finals to face off in a mouth-watering clash against Bayern Munich. Memphis Depay and co. masterminded by Rudi Garcia had other ideas. In the 24th minute, the French side took advantage of City’s high defensive line by playing a ball over the top which Maxwel Cornet expertly bent around the left-hand post and into the net.
City did not panic however and continued to be patient for the rest of the half. Their best chances falling to Rodri and Raheem Sterling. The latter as a result of one of the passes of the season from De Bruyne by picking out Sterling from the left-hand side perfectly with the outside of his right foot.
Lyon set up in the second half to try and maintain their lead. This was to be expected given their successes in the first half defensively in nullifying City’s embarrassment of riches in attack.
Given the quality of the attacking football, City played to sweep aside Real Madrid in the Round of 16, this set up by Guardiola was puzzling and left many scratching their heads as they took to the field with a three-man defence and none of, as Rio Ferdinand described them as on BT Sport, “geniuses”, the likes of Mahrez, Bernardo etc.
De Bruyne pulled City level on 69 minutes with a guided strike following Sterling’s pass.
Former Celtic striker Moussa Dembele, on as a substitute, restored Lyon’s lead in controversial circumstances 11 minutes from time, the video assistant referee (VAR) appeared to ignore an obvious foul by the goalscorer before he ran on to beat Ederson. Yet more VAR heartbreak for City following on from last year’s agonising offside decision against Tottenham.
City pressed for the equaliser but Sterling was guilty of an appalling miss, somehow sending his finish over the top of an open goal from Gabriel Jesus’ pass.
It proved to be hugely expensive as 59 seconds later when Dembele scored his second after Ederson fumbled a shot from Houssem Aouar’s routine shot.
Guardiola must take the lion share of the blame for this result primarily down to his selection which was unexpectedly cautious. As has sometimes been the case with Guardiola on important nights he appears to overthink selections and Saturday was one of those nights. Yes, Lyon eliminated Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus in the previous round but surely with City’s quality and attacking prowess they should have been winning this one comfortably?
For all of City’s disappointment in attack, nothing can be taken away from Rudi Garcia’s set up of Lyon and their all-round efforts right throughout the whole team must be applauded. No one can predict how City would have faired against an in-form Bayern but that is irrelevant as it’s now down to the Frenchmen to try and halt the German Champions and their 19-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
