Lyon a few hours ago, shocked Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City as the French side beats the English Premier League champions by 1-2 in their opening group game in the Champions League.
Lyon who looked more like the team that came prepared on the night, took the game to their host, causing all sorts of problem for the Manchester City side, as Pep watched helplessly on the stands while Mikel Arteta watched on.
Lyon playing in their fast and running around game, embarrassing City, as Guardiola once again recorded another Champions League defeat at home to Lyon, taking his record to four defeats in five at home
Manchester City in the game, never played like the City we all know and the team that won the Premier League last season, breaking all the premier league records.
The team losing at home could find it difficult in Group F as their next game will be away, and given the suspension of Pep Guardiola from the bench, he will not be on the stand.
Guardiola was serving the first game of a two-match ban imposed for haranguing the officials during City’s Champions League quarter-final exit to Liverpool last season.
Unlike the Manchester City we used to see, who are clinical in front of goal, possession and controlling virtually all the areas of the pitch, seem not to be in the mood on the day Lyon came knocking…and their performance has been described as the worse since Pep took over as a manager, as fans left the stadium even before the final whistle.
Nabil Fekir and Memphis Depay were impressive on the night, as they both showed class, especially Nabil Fekir who troubled the City defence and showed why Liverpool were looking to sign him,
but failed.
Lyon goals came from an error from Fernandinho whose sloppy play resulted in the two goals from Lyon Fekir scored the opening goal, after Fernandinho passed the ball to the French man who found space down the left to curl a cross in.
Fernandinho was not done yet, as in another sloppy play, was dispossessed by Fekir who quickly exchanged passed with Depay, strode forward and drove a superb low shot from the area’s edge into the corner of the goal as David Silva stood off.
After the game, Mikel Arteta who was the manager on the night said he was disappointed with the result, saying:
“Second half was totally different, we created chances.
I still believed we could do it, had to sort out a few things, another day we could have come back into the game and at this level if you don’t take chances it’s difficult. The boys did really well, they affected the game the way we thought but sometimes its too late.
We have to review the game to see where we came up short and try to improve.
It’s a big disappointment. We know the group stage is really tough.”