In another ecstatic night of beautiful football, underdogs, Lyon smashed Manchester City out of the UEFA Champions League. Two late strikes from demolition super-sub, Moussa Dembele sealed the fate of a high-octane encounter. Despite being the lighter of the two sides on paper, Rudi Garcia hardwired his wards with the intent to attack. The Cityzens failed to match up with Lyon’s passion.
Maxwell Cornet scored almost after a year in Europe’s biggest contest. This was against the same opponent that witnessed his last goal in the European contention. As Ekambi hustled and harried with Garcia for a scrambled ball, the rebound fell at Cornet’s feet. The Ivorian midfielder drilled into the net from an extremely acute angle. It was enough to erupt Rudi Garcia into frenzied elations.
It was City’s best player who restored parity as Raheem Sterling was fed a delectable ball by Mahrez. The former slid back and nudged a perfectly-threaded pass in the stride of an onrushing De Bruyne. The Belgian wizard slotted a fine finish into the net.
Manchester City will want to forget this horrible game
As City started growing in the game and as it felt that they will ascertain the lead at any second, Lyon disrupted all the calculations as substitute Moussa Dembele struck a fine finish to take a dramatic lead against the wind of the game. Aouar picked a long ball that sliced the City defence into the half with Dembele bombing down the centre. After comfortably settling himself for the shot, he speared a fine strike that did take a brush off Ederson’s foot and rolled into the net.
Moments later, Raheem Sterling had all the time in the world to restore order in this crazy bout between the French and the English stalwarts, as Gabriel Jesus crafted a brilliant run to tee up Sterling with the entire goal gaping wide at him. Somehow, he managed to balloon his shot over the woodwork, leaving everyone watching the game in titanic disbelief.
To compound City’s and Sterling’s misery, Dembele struck again in the 87th-minute form an emaciated rebound. It was a shot that fell off the palm of Ederson. It was shot into the net to leave the English titans derailed from this year’s Champions Trophy.
Despite, City were trying desperately to fight back in the remaining minutes. The effort proved to be futile as Lyon defended with their lives on the line.
We will quickly take a dig at the pointers that impacted the game.
1. Manchester City missed their attacking mojo in the final third
Sterling’s glaring miss at the face of the open net that could have brought City back in the game, pretty much summed City’s night.
2. Rudi Garcia’s substitutes were too perfect for City to stay standing
With 15 minutes to go, Garcia introduced Tete and Dembele in place of an exhausted Depay and Dubois. The injection of two fresh pair of legs jarred things up a bit. Dembele’s brawn upfront started asking questions to the City defenders.
The hammer fell when Dembele struck Lyon’s second past a hapless Ederson. The goalie had nothing to do in case of their second goal. Once again, making the fullest use of his poaching instincts, Dembele struck the third. Ederson could only parry Aouar’s meaty strike in his path. Call him a super-sub or call him whatever you like, it was Garcia’s perfect use of substitutes that left City dazed and confused.
3. Ederson is Manchester City’s new villain
With all the diligence from Manchester City on the field, one moment of madness from Ederson Moraes left the Cityzens crying. This is not the first time that Ederson has spilt the ball out of his hand in a big match.
In the Manchester derby, it was a double error from Ederson that cost them the game. Manchester City have been hurt this term too. Just as Guardiola thought about aligning his forces to counter Lyon’s second strike, that was exactly when the Brazilian number two committed this unforgivable howler. It was just digging the grave for the Etihad locals.
