Stunned City lost without Pep factor
French cash in on Guardiola touchline ban
This being the group stage, it was only strike one for Manchester City. it was, however, a sobering reminder of what life will one day be like when the Catalan circus has left town — and a heartening vision for their rivals, too.
No Pep, no pep, it would seem. With their coach banned for this match, they looked bereft for significant spells, missing their energy, missing their intensity. Mikel Arteta did his best to fill the space in the technical area, but how could he? We’ve seen that Amazon documentary now. We know what a show-stopping act he is following.
Lyon did not dominate the game but nor were they unworthy winners. indeed, before City pulled one back on 67 minutes, Lyon had been denied a third by Ederson’s fingertips and a post. had that gone in, one imagines the Etihad would quickly have looked even emptier than it did just before kick-off.
As it was, substitute Leroy sane helped get City back into the game and create some late drama. Brought on for ilkay Gundogan a mere five minutes after half-time, it was his pace that undid Lyon, tearing down the left flank past two men before cutting the ball back for Bernardo silva to finish.
Yet even after that fillip, City were strangely disappointing, unable to aim a very British kitchen sink at Lyon in the way Liverpool might. indeed, it was the performance of Jurgen Klopp’s men against Paris saint-Germain on Tuesday night that made this display so hard to accept.
Maybe Liverpool would look lost without Klopp, too, but this was a sobering experience for the blue side of Manchester. When Kyle Walker took free-kick responsibilities with seven minutes to go and curled a shot tamely over the bar, Riyad Mahrez his decoy, it seemed to encapsulate the aimlessness.
‘it was really disappointing,’ admitted City defender John stones. ‘To concede two goals like we did was very frustrating.
‘We came in at half-time a bit deflated. We picked ourselves up and played better in the second half, but it was frustrating.
‘it is the first game, still early days. We put pressure on ourselves. There is no outside pressure.
‘We go again in the next game. There is still a lot to play for and we should be positive about that.’
it was obvious which talismanic figure Man City were missing. Not captain Vincent Kompany, the prolific sergio Aguero or record signing Mahrez on the bench — although any of those three could have made a difference in a deeply unsatisfactory, borderline disastrous first half.
No, the man they needed was imprisoned in the stand. Guardiola, banned from the touchline for his sending-off against Liverpool last season, his absence a hole in the fabric of his club. Whatever might be said of Arteta as Guardiola’s shadow, his right-hand man or possible successor, the first half drift was proof of the influence of the modern super-coaches.
The same players who appeared unstoppable under Guardiola’s intense gaze were suddenly sloppy, even slow. City’s build-up was ponderous, their use of the ball careless. Walker at one time passed directly to an orange shirt, almost unthinking. For Lyon’s opening goal, City were woefully slack from the heart of midfield, to their reaction to danger, to their defence of goal.
Perched in the stand, Guardiola had been sitting with his feet up, but not in the confident way a man might rest his shoes on a polished desk in a corner office. he looked hunched, he looked tense.
he could see things he did not like, things that were wrong with his team, unfamiliar attitudes, unfamiliar errors. he must have wanted to go at them, as he would from his technical area, or in the dressing room given the 15 half-time minutes to do his stuff. instead, here he was, amid the prawn sandwiches and fine diners. City have the swanky Tunnel Club. Guardiola was in a hole.
The mood around the place did not help. it was not the fault of an empty seat that Fabian Delph missed his kick at a vital moment, yet when one recalls the atmosphere at Anfield the previous night and the way Liverpool swept PsG aside, one cannot help but compare it unfavourably with City’s European experience.
There were a significant number of empty seats and, while Anfield’s sound and fury inspired an almighty level of intensity against PsG, City played like their ground looked: underwhelming, slightly absent. They did a few little dances around Lyon’s goalmouth area but not with the energy of Liverpool and they surrendered meekly to Lyon’s counter-attacks and were two goals behind before half-time.
The first came after 26 minutes, the result of an exchange of passes in midfield that tried to be crisp but ended up haphazard. Eventually, Lyon seized the ball and the initiative, Nabil Fekir speeding down the left flank. Walker lacked alertness to this development, allowing Fekir to get in a fine cross, although one that should have
been cleared by Delph at the far post. Again, out of character, he lost concentration and failed to make a significant connection. It fell to Maxwel Cornet instead, and he rammed it past Ederson. The stadium was stunned. City went 2-0 behind, allowing Fekir to march through the centre two minutes before half-time. Given sight of the target, Fekir shot and scored.
City chances? Few. Raheem Sterling shot into the side-netting after 12 minutes, and had another effort blocked by former City defender Jason Denayer four minutes later. Walker, David Silva and Sterling then combined for another shot denied, this time by goalkeeper Anthony Lopes.
But it was meagre stuff. A Delph effort cut out and limping to Lopes, a Gabriel Jesus header that was no test. Lyon, with former Celtic striker Moussa Dembele an unused substitute, even had the best chance of the early secondhalf exchanges, on the hour, when Tanguy Ndombele fed Memphis Depay and the former Manchester United man sped through the middle, his shot eluding Ederson but not his right post. In the technical area, Arteta plunged his hands in his pockets and looked less like his mentor than ever.