Moussa Dembele played the part of super-sub as his two-goal cameo from the bench, dumped Manchester City out of the Champions League after a 3-1 defeat to Lyon.
The former Celtic striker replaced Memphis Depay with 15 minutes to go and hit a six-minute double to destroy City’s European dreams, sending the French side through against all the odds.
In a thrilling and drama-filled conclusion, VAR allowed Dembele’s breakaway goal to stand despite an apparent foul in the build-up before Raheem Sterling missed an open goal moment and Dembele’s tap-in from Ederson’s error confirmed City’s shock exit.
City went into the game as huge favourites but Lyon once again caused an upset, with Maxwell Cornet, putting his side ahead in the first half. It was the Ivorian’s fourth goal in three meetings with City as he proved a menace for City once again in Lisbon.
A superb finish from Kevin De Bruyne hauled City level and they looked the more likely to win in the spell of dominance that followed.
But Lyon had an ace up their sleeve in top scorer Dembele, who put the Ligue 1 side back ahead in the 79th minute. City will once again feel aggrieved by VAR in the Champions League as the Frenchman was not penalised for a foul on Aymeric Laporte in the build-up.
Dembele then scored again 59 seconds after Sterling had blazed over from six yards with an open goal on offer. The former Celtic and Fulham forward slotted home a rebounded save from Ederson to set up a semi-final tie against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Manchester City have once again failed to advance past the quarter-final stage, being knocked out in the final eight in three successive seasons.
Man City manager, Pep Guardiola, obviously disappointed after the defeat predicted that “One day we will break this gap.” He said that, “the second half was OK, I had a feeling we were better but you have to be perfect in these competitions.
“I don’t want to talk about the circumstances of Dembele’s first goal, it looks like I’m complaining or finding excuses. We are out. We did a lot of good things and in the end it was not enough.
We made mistakes in both boxes at key moments and that’s why we are out. We scored a magnificent goal but unfortunately we missed another one. You have to be perfect, you cannot make mistakes.”
Lyon manager, Rudi Garcia, the first French manager to guide a French team to the Champions League semi-finals since 2009-10 was ecstatic after the match;
“I’m proud of my players. We believed in ourselves. We knew we weren’t favourites and we were playing a top team.
“Above all our success was down to our team spirit. Everyone worked for each other and the substitutes helped a lot. We won the tactical battle. There are still matches to be played and hurdles to overcome and we’ll try to overcome them.”
Lyon will face Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday, August 19.
