Manchester City's Champions League (CL) frustration continued with their shock 3-1 defeat to Olympique Lyonnais in the quarter-finals at Lisbon. Despite dominating possession throughout the match, defensive errors led to underdogs Lyon going through to the semi-finals where they will face the might of Bayern Munich.
City coach Pep Guardiola was on his knees a number of times during the dying moments of the second half when City conceded twice after equalizing and Raheem Sterling missed a sitter when the score was still 2-1.
Tactics Not Paramount
In this competition, the tactics are not the most important thing, Guardiola said in the post-match press conference. "They (Lyon) are so fast and our central defenders are not so quick so I didn't want to leave them two versus two. We worked for three days on this, we discussed it and we reviewed this and when you play like we did in the last 20 minutes it shows the system is not the problem."
Out of Champions League Again
City's defensive woes led to them giving Liverpool a free run in the Premier League title race despite scoring 102 goals this season and it was found wanting against Lyon. They were woefully caught out when Maxwell Cornet put the French side ahead and the same happened again when Moussa Dembele scored the second just seconds after Sterling's miss at the other end.
"It is what it is and hopefully one day we'll break this gap in this competition," added Guardiola, who has led City to two Premier League titles in four seasons but never gone beyond the quarter-final stage in the Champions League. "We created more chances, had more shots, we did everything but unfortunately we are out again."
