AFP, Lisbon :
Moussa Dembele came off the bench to score two late goals as Lyon caused another Champions League sensation on Saturday, dumping out Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City with a 3-1 quarter-final win in Lisbon.
City had looked on course to come back and win the tie behind closed doors at the Estadio Jose Alvalade after Kevin De Bruyne’s goal midway through the second half had cancelled out Maxwel Cornet’s first-half opener.
However, Dembele put Lyon back ahead in the 79th minute and then capitalised on a shocking miss by Raheem Sterling to clinch the victory three minutes from the end. Against all expectations, a team who finished seventh in the curtailed French season, and had played just two competitive games since early March, now find themselves through to a Champions League semi-final on Wednesday against Bayern Munich.
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. 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.
Their wait for European glory will go on, with this a third consecutive exit in the quarter-finals. Guardiola 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.