Johnny On The Spot: The mood was upbeat as City’s 3,000 jet-setters began to descend the heady heights of the Groupama Stadium on Tuesday night. The Blues had not only secured an important European away point, but it was the manner of it, with the side not motoring at full throttle in “The City Way” that caught the eye.
In what increasingly looks to be a wide open Champions League competition this season, Pep Guardiola’s centurions demonstrated that not only do they carry swashbuckling flair in abundance, they also have a grit and a resilience about them that bodes well for the difficult away days that will come next year. The likes of a sizzling young Ajax, an uncompromising Napoli or a resurgent Dortmund could provide our next port of call. (In the Napoli scenario, that could yet depend upon the route their team bus takes to Candlefield later this month).
Typifying City’s stubborn reproach to Lyon’s fizzing young forwards, the twin towers of John Stones and Aymeric Laporte put in a tremendous shift. Not many Premier League sides would be able to handle Bruno Genesio’s team in full flight in their pulsating disco-techno stadium and it’s to City’s credit that they were able to spar Lyon at arm’s length to take the sting out of their counter attacking thrusts when required. For their part, Lyon can expect a number of big European clubs to come knocking for players with the calibre of the canny Houssem Aouar should they fail to negotiate Shakhtar successfully next time out. My Man of The Match was Kun Aguero. He worked his socks off as his side dug deep and despite being stalked around Los Angeles by Das Daily Mail hacks during the international break has remained totally focused on his job no doubt to the craparazzi’s chagrin.
Groupama Stadium
Champions League - Group F
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi of Italy
| Olympique Lyonnais | Manchester City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornet (55', 81') | Laporte (62'), Agüero (83') | ||||||
| 1 Antony Lopes | 31 Ederson | ||||||
| 5 Jason Denayer | 2 Kyle Walker | ||||||
| 6 Guedes Filho | 5 John Stones | ||||||
| 20 Marçal de Oliveira | 14 Aymeric Laporte | ||||||
| 4 Pereira da Silva | Tete 74' | 35 Oleks Zinchenko | |||||
| 28 Tanguy NDombele | 7 Raheem Sterling | ||||||
| 8 Houssem Aouar | 25 Fernandinho | ||||||
| 22 Ferland Mendy | 21 David Silva | ||||||
| 27 Maxwell Cornet | Terrier 89' | 26 Riyad Mahrez | |||||
| 18 Nabil Fekir | Traoré 84' | 10 Sergio Agüero | Foden 90+1' | ||||
| 11 Memphis Depay | 19 Leroy Sané | Delph 71' | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 7 Martin Terrier | 3 Danilo | ||||||
| 10 Bertrand Traoré | 4 Vincent Kompany | ||||||
| 15 Jeremy Morel | 18 Fabian Delph | ||||||
| 23 Kenny Tete | 30 Nicolas Otamendi | ||||||
| 24 Diop Gueye | 47 Philip Foden | ||||||
| 29 Lucas Tousart | 49 Aro Muric | ||||||
| 30 Mathieu Gorgelin | 55 Brahim Diaz | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 12 | Goal attempts | 13 |
| 4 | On Target | 6 |
| 1 | Corners | 7 |
| 5 | Fouls | 11 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 41 | % | 59 |