UEFA Champions League: Dembele double as Lyon stun Guardiola’s City to reach semis

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.

City had seemed on target to come back again and win the tie behind closed doorways on the Estadio Jose Alvalade after Kevin De Bruyne’s aim halfway via 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 surprising miss by Raheem Sterling to clinch the victory three minutes from the top.

Against all expectations, a group who completed seventh within the curtailed French season, and had performed simply two aggressive video games since early March, now discover themselves via to a Champions League semi-final on Wednesday towards Bayern Munich.

That, certainly, shall be a step too far for Rudi Garcia’s group however then once more no one anticipated them to get rid of Juventus within the final spherical, by no means thoughts knock out City right here.

Guardiola’s group had been warned about Lyon, shedding at dwelling after which drawing away towards the French membership in final season’s Champions League.

But that was virtually 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 below Guardiola.

Their look ahead to European glory will go on, with this a 3rd consecutive exit within the quarter-finals.

Guardiola was dropped at the Etihad Stadium to ship the Champions League, however he has not managed to equal the membership’s finest 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 shall be no English consultant within the semi-finals within the Portuguese capital.

Instead each ties shall be Franco-German duels, with Paris Saint-Germain going through RB Leipzig earlier than Bayern meet Lyon in a repeat of the 2010 semi-finals.

Guardiola had set his group up with a three-man defence, as Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte have been joined by the younger Spaniard Eric Garcia within the again line. 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 sort out 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 exceptional document towards these opponents — the wing-back scored 3 times towards them 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 rather than Fernandinho.

The equaliser duly arrived within the 69th minute as Mahrez clipped a ball ahead in the direction of Sterling and he minimize it again from the byline to De Bruyne, the Belgian arriving unmarked on the fringe of the field to sidefoot dwelling first-time.

Few would have wager towards City occurring to win the sport from there. Lyon had supplied 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 resolution as his alternative Dembele latched onto Houssem Aouar’s via ball to race via on aim and beat Ederson.

City anticipated the hassle to be disallowed following a VAR assessment however the Dutch officers let it stand, and Lyon have been again in entrance.

Still they need to have been pegged again once more, however Sterling someway put the ball over with the aim 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.