Champions League QF: Man City vs Lyon - Match Preview
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| UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final: Manchester City vs Olympique Lyonnais, Estadio Jose Alvalade, Portugal, 20:00. Photo of Man City: Dave Thompson/Pool via Getty Images. Photo of Lyon: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images |
Manchester City take on Lyon in the last of the Champions League quarter-final ties in Lisbon on Saturday, aiming to reach the last four for just a second time.
The Citizens knocked out perennial winners Real Madrid over two legs in the last round, while Lyon stunned Italian champions Juventus to progress.
The winners of this match at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, which will be played over just one leg, will face Bayern Munich in next week's semi-finals.
Given the unique nature of this season's Champions League, with the quarter-finals onwards being played out in Portugal over the course of a couple of weeks, City's focus is solely on this competition.
Pep Guardiola has previously joked that he would be nothing more than a "failure" if he fails to win the competition during his time with City, and on the face of it there is no better time to lift the famous trophy than this season.
After finishing second in the Premier League and exiting the FA Cup at the semi-final stage, Guardiola knows that there is even more weight on his shoulders to go all the way this time around.
The Citizens certainly have momentum on their side following their 4-2 aggregate victory over Madrid in the first knockout round, following up their 2-1 first-leg triumph with a win by the same scoreline in last Friday's return fixture.
City may have been helped by some shocking defending from the usually reliable Raphael Varane, but they took their chances when they arrived and were comfortable winners in the end.
That famous victory made it three wins in a row for EFL Cup winners City in all competitions, and six victories in their last seven, scoring 23 goals and conceding only four during that run.
It will all ultimately count for little if they fail to overcome Lyon, however, and Guardiola will need no reminding of his side's struggles against the Ligue 1 opposition when they met twice in last season's group stage.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 15, 2020Rudi Garcia's men showed exactly what they are capable of against Juventus in the last 16, edging through 2-2 on away goals despite Cristiano Ronaldo's best efforts in the second leg last week.
Lyon looked a little rusty against Juve last time out and that is not at all surprising given that it was just their second competitive game in five months, the other being a defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Coupe de Ligue final on July 31.
City are competing at the last-eight stage for a fourth time in five seasons, meanwhile, but they have advanced from just one of those previous ties - knocking out PSG in 2015-16 - and will certainly not take anything for granted on Saturday.
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