Lyon upends Man City to reach Champions semis

Lyon stunned Manchester City to reach the Champions League semifinals for the first time in a decade, with Moussa Dembele scoring twice for the

French outsiders Saturday to seal a 3-1 win that sets up a meeting with Bayern Munich.

City, one of the most expensively assembled squads in football history, lost to the team that finished seventh in the

French league and needs to lift the European Cup for the first time to return to the competition next season.

It leaves Pep Guardiola without a Champions League title since 2011 with Barcelona, falling short in three attempts with Bayern Munich and never making it past the quarterfinals in his four seasons at City.

Guardiola’s decision to deploy an unfamiliar fiveman defense to match Lyon’s system backfired when gaping holes were left at the back before Maxwel Cornet struck the opener in the 24th minute.

Kevin De Bruyne equalized in the 69th but substitute Dembele restored the lead 10 minutes later after being on the pitch for only four minutes. Then came the moment to level that will haunt Raheem Sterling, who blazed the ball over an empty net, and a minute later Dembele scored again.

There was no way back for City, which has been eliminated three consecutive seasons in the quarterfinals, leaving the club still waiting to become European champions despite the huge influx of cash from Abu Dhabi since 2008.

“We need to learn – it’s not good enough and that’s it,” De Bruyne said. “Different year, same stuff.”

City’s biggest Champions League win of the season, though, came off the pitch when its lawyers overturned a two-season ban from European competitions.

But for a City side that eliminated record 13-time champion Real Madrid in the previous round, losing to Lyon was not in the script.

Given that a place in the semifinals was on the line, City’s back line didn’t rise to the challenge.

The lack of urgency in dealing with Lyon’s advance for the opener was careless as Marcal sent a long ball over the top from inside his own half.

At that point Kyle Walker was alongside Cornet at the halfway line but the City right back lingered rather than tracking back. Aymeric Laporte also lost the advancing Toko Ekambi. Eric Garcia did run back to make the sliding tackle that prevented Ekambi from shooting.

But Cornet had sprinted forward and was left unmarked to pick up the loose ball before exploiting Ederson being caught off his line. Cornet shot low past the goalkeeper into the corner of the net.

“This team is great,” De Bruyne said, “but we make too many mistakes.”

Elsewhere: Lionel Messi had warned Barcelona’s fans that his team didn’t have enough to win the Champions League this season. But not even the most pessimistic supporter could have imagined the depths to which Barcelona could sink.

The Spanish club was battered beyond recognition during Friday’s 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, arguably the most devastating loss in the history of the 120-year-old club.

Spanish sports daily

Sport called it “Historic Humiliation“on the front page of Saturday’s edition.

Unless the club can quickly contain the crisis, the debacle threatens to bring an end to the winning era that made Barcelona one of the top clubs in the world.

Bayern proved him right. Bayern made Barcelona look tired and spiritless, demolishing an already teetering reputation that once made coaches scheme ways to simply not get overrun by its trademark passing attack.

Messi did not speak after the loss that promises to be the lowest point in an illustrious club career which has included 34 trophies.

But for defender Gerard Pique, the low Barcelona hit in Lisbon comes after a decline that the club has not been able to stop despite spending vast sums.

ETC.

Tennis: Jennifer Brady reached the first WTA final of her career by using a power-based game to beat 16-year-old Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4 at the Top Seed Open, the first tennis tournament in the U.S. since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Brady, a 25-year-old based in Florida, will face Jil Teichmann, a 23-yearold left-hander from Switzerland, in Sunday’s title match in Lexington, Kentucky.

Neither finalist has dropped a set at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 31 in

New York.

Brady has ceded a total of just 17 games through four matches and was broken only once — by Gauff.

In their match, Brady hit eight aces and won 22 of 26 first-serve points.

Gauff, who lives in Delray Beach, eliminated the No. 2 and No. 8 seeds earlier in the tournament.