Lyon upset Guardiola’s City to set up semi with Bayern

LISBON: Gabriel Jesus was crouching on the field and crying. Not even the Manchester City jersey covering his face could mask the agony.

Raheem Sterling was lying across the turf, his hands crossed over his eyes.

Then, the Olympique Lyonnais players broke away from their celebrations to console opponents distraught at being knocked out of the Champions League without reaching the semi-finals for a fourth straight season.

City, the most expensively assembled squad in football history, had lost 3-1 to the team that finished seventh in the curtailed French league season.

“It’s incredible because we’re the surprise team,” Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes said. “I don’t think many people expected us to reach this stage of the competition.”

Against all expectations, Lyon, who had played just two competitive games since early March, now find themselves through to their first Champions League semifinal in a decade against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

That, surely, will be a step too far for Rudi Garcia’s team but then again nobody expected them to eliminate Juventus in the last round, never mind knock out City here.

“We are still in it, which means we have a great team,” Lyon striker Moussa Dembele, who came off the bench and scored twice on Saturday, said. “We are taking it game by game, not getting carried away. We will try to be ready for Bayern.”

It is the first time that two French teams will compete in the semi-finals of the competition with Paris St Germain facing RB Leipzig in the other Franco-German game in the last four.

The result also means that, for the first time the first since 1991 no team from England, Spain or Italy will compete in the last four of Europe’s premier club competition.

But for City and their manager Pep Guardiola, they must face up to another collapse in their quest to become European champions for the first time.

“Different year, same stuff. I think the first half wasn’t good enough, I think we know that, we started slow, we had not many options, but the second half we played really well… it’s a shame for us to go out in this way,” said a disconsolate Kevin De Bruyne, who scored City’s only goal to equalise before Dembele scored twice. “We need to learn. It’s not good enough, and that’s it.”

It leaves Pep Guardiola still waiting for a first Champions League title since 2011 while coaching Barcelona, falling short in three attempts with Bayern before repeated failures with City. After surrendering the Premier League trophy to Liverpool, City end the season with only the League Cup.

Guardiola’s decision to deploy an unfamiliar five-man defence to match Lyon’s system backfired when gaping holes were left at the back before Maxwel Cornet struck the opener in the 24th minute behind closed doors at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.

A ball over the top found Karl Toko Ekambi and although Eric Garcia halted his progress the ball fell to Cornet who, spotting that Ederson was well off his line, showed great awareness and skill, from just outside the box, to curl a low shot into the unguarded near post.

“We won the tactical battle as we master our system of play,” Lyon coach Garcia said.

De Bruyne appeared the most likely to make something happen for City and threatened from free-kicks after the restart, as City turned up the heat following the introduction of Riyad Mahrez in place of Fernandinho.

The equaliser duly arrived in the 69th minute as Mahrez clipped a ball forward towards Sterling and he cut it back from the byline to De Bruyne, the Belgian arriving unmarked at the edge of the box to sidefoot home.

Lyon made its own game-changing substitution with the arrival in the 75th minute of Dembele, who met Maxence Caqueret’s pass to complete a counterattack four minutes later.

Then came the chance to level again that will haunt Sterling. Facing an unguarded net at the far post, Sterling missed the target completely and Lyon went straight downfield and sealed a famous victory as Dembele converted the loose ball after Ederson had saved from Houssem Aouar.

This was an error-strewn performance by City on a night when Guardiola was out-thought by Garcia, whose last major titles were the French league and cup double with Lille in 2011.

“Rudi Garcia has left his mark, has instilled discipline,” sporting director Juninho said. “We grew up. Now we need a little humility, a little calm.”

Guardiola’s team had been warned about Lyon, losing at home and then drawing away against the French club in last season’s Champions League.

But that was almost two years ago now and Lyon had lost several key players 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 under Guardiola.

“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 said.

He was brought to the Etihad Stadium to deliver the Champions League, but he has not managed to equal the club’s best performance to date in the competition, a semi-final appearance in 2016, just before he was appointed.

And so, a year after Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur in an all-English final, there will be no English representative in the semi-finals in the Portuguese capital.