City, Lyon blast big guns away

Manchester, Aug. 8: Manchester City took advantage of two shocking mistakes by Raphael Varane to beat Real Madrid 2-1 in their Champions League last 16 second leg on Friday and advance to the quarterfinals as Pep Guardiola came out on top in his duel with Zinedine Zidane.

But Madrid had been left with a mountain to climb in this tie after throwing away the lead to lose 2-1 in the first leg in Spain in February, before the coronavirus forced the competition into hibernation.

An identical defeat at an empty Etihad Stadium means it is City who advance 4-2 on aggregate.

Varane was dispossessed inside the box in the ninth minute allowing Raheem Sterling to put City ahead, and his poor headed backpass attempt gifted Gabriel Jesus another goal midway through the second half.

Before that second goal the tie had been in the balance with the in-form Karim Benzema having scored for the visitors just before the half-hour mark.

Meanwhiel, Lyon also qualified for the quarterfinals of the Champions League despite losing 1-2 in Turin, on away goal advantage.

Lyon squeezed past the Italian champions thanks to Memphis Depay’s 12thminute penalty which put Rudi Garcia’s side two goals ahead in the tie and left Juve with a mountain to climb.

Needing to score three unanswered goals in order to go through, Cristiano Ronaldo tried his best to drag the Italian champions over the line.

He levelled the scores on the night with a penalty of his own with two minutes left in the opening period before crashing a second home on the hour mark.

SARRI GETS THE BOOT AS JUVE MANAGER

Juventus fired coach Maurizio Sarri on Saturday after his first season in charge ended with the team’s Champions League exit.

Despite winning the Italian title, Sarri paid the price for the Round-of-16 loss to Lyon on Friday.

Sarri also left Chelsea last year after only one season in charge — despite winning the Europa League with the London club. While he led Juventus to a recordextending ninth straight Italian title, the team never really adapted to his quickpassing style. — Agencies