'Supernatural': how French media reacted to Lyon's win over Man City
French media and fans celebrated Lyon’s surprise win over Manchester City in the Champions League quarterfinals, with L’Équipe praising Houssem Aouar and Le Monde concentrating on Rudi Garcia’s tactical victory over Pep Guardiola.
L’Équipe led with the simple headline of “Fabulous!” on its front page while labelling Maxwel Cornet as “Mad Max” after the converted wing-back opened the scoring against City, his fourth goal against the Premier League club in all competitions since Pep Guardiola took over in 2016, with Lyon earning a 2-1 win and 2-2 draw in the Champions League back in 2018. “A miracle? No, rather a habit,” wrote Hugo Guillemet in Lisbon.
Houssem Aouar was given 9/10 in L’Équipe’s player ratings, highlighting the captain’s involvement in the two final goals. “A maestro … the Lyon leader was everywhere: he wandered between the Citizens in midfield.”
Le Figaro gave the Lyon goalkeeper
Anthony Lopes 8/10 but was critical of Memphis Depay – rated just 4/10 – explaining that “the Dutchman, back from injury, did not have the juice to exploit his immense qualities”.
There was also a video of the scenes in Lyon after the final whistle. Fans celebrated wildly throughout the city, but didn’t appear to adhere to socialdistancing guidelines, as their team reached their first Champions League semi-final in 10 years.
L’Équipe tweeted that the miss from Raheem Sterling was “the moment that everything changed” after the England forward blazed over when presented with an open goal to make it 2-2. A minute after that miss, Moussa Dembélé – who had come off the bench to put Lyon 2-1 up – scored the decisive third goal. He was widely praised, with the writer Vincent Garcia insisting that his performance “showed his manager that he was still a scorer and remind the