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Moussa Dembele got here off the bench to attain two late objectives as Lyon brought on one other Champions League sensation on Saturday, dumping out Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City with a 3-1 quarter-final win in Lisbon. Manchester City had regarded on target to return again and win the tie behind closed doorways on the Estadio Jose Alvalade after Kevin De Bruyne’s objective halfway by the second half had cancelled out Maxwel Cornet’s first-half opener. However, Dembele put Lyon again forward within the 79th minute after which capitalised on a stunning miss by Raheem Sterling to clinch the victory three minutes from the tip.
Against all expectations, a workforce who completed seventh within the curtailed French season, and had performed simply two aggressive video games since early March, now discover themselves by to a Champions League semi-final on Wednesday in opposition to Bayern Munich.
That, absolutely, will likely be a step too far for Rudi Garcia’s workforce however then once more no one anticipated them to eradicate Juventus within the final spherical, by no means thoughts knock out City right here.
“We are still in it, which means we have a great team,” former Celtic striker Dembele advised French tv channel RMC Sport.
“We are taking it game by game, not getting carried away. We will try to be ready for Bayern.”
Guardiola’s workforce had been warned about Lyon, dropping at house after which drawing away in opposition to the French membership in final season’s Champions League.
But that was nearly two years in the past now and Lyon had misplaced a number of key gamers since then.
This, a day after Bayern’s 8-2 demolition of Barcelona, is a seismic shock and a hammer blow to the ambitions of City underneath Guardiola.
Their look ahead to European glory will go on, with this a 3rd consecutive quarter-final exit.
“It is what it is. Maybe one day we are going to break through the quarter-finals. We are not able to do it now, with these incredible guys, but we are going to try in the future,” Guardiola stated.
He was delivered to the Etihad Stadium to ship the Champions League, however he has not managed to equal the membership’s greatest efficiency to this point within the competitors, a semi-final look in 2016, simply earlier than he was appointed.
Franco-German battle
And so, a 12 months after Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur in an all-English last, there will likely be no English consultant within the semi-finals within the Portuguese capital.
Instead each ties will likely be Franco-German duels, with Paris Saint-Germain dealing with RB Leipzig earlier than Bayern meet Lyon in a repeat of the 2010 semi-finals.
Guardiola had set his workforce up with a three-man defence, as Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte have been joined by the younger Spaniard Eric Garcia. Phil Foden dropped out of their line-up.
City created little within the first half and have been caught out by a protracted ball excessive as Lyon took the lead.
Garcia raced again to deal with Karl Toko-Ekambi however Cornet was quickest to the free ball and, with Ederson off his line, curled a low shot first-time into the nook of the web to maintain up his outstanding document in opposition to these opponents — the wing-back scored 3 times in opposition to City in final season’s two conferences.
De Bruyne appeared the almost certainly to make one thing occur for City and threatened from free-kicks after the restart, as City turned up the warmth following the introduction of Riyad Mahrez instead of Fernandinho.
The equaliser duly arrived within the 69th minute as Mahrez clipped a ball ahead in direction of Sterling and he reduce it again from the byline to De Bruyne, the Belgian arriving unmarked on the fringe of the field to sidefoot house.
Sterling’s superb miss
Few would have guess in opposition to City happening to win the sport from there. Lyon had provided nothing going ahead within the second half and coach Garcia even determined to take off Memphis Depay, who had been nameless.
But it proved an impressed choice as his alternative Dembele latched onto Houssem Aouar’s by ball to race by on objective and beat Ederson.
City anticipated the hassle to be disallowed following a VAR evaluate however the Dutch officers let it stand, and Lyon have been again in entrance.
Promoted
Still they need to have been pegged again once more, however Sterling someway put the ball over with the objective gaping having been teed up by Ilkay Gundogan.
Lyon went straight downfield and sealed a well-known victory as Dembele transformed the free ball after Ederson had saved from Aouar.
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