Tonight, the city of Lisbon in Portugal will be alive again as the only surviving Premier League side in the 2019-2020 UEFA Champions League, Manchester City face French Ligue 1 side, Lyon, in a one-legged Champions League quarter-final battle.
The meeting which would take place at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon 20:00 tonight would see two teams that have not been so lucky in the tournament try to knock themselves out of a competition that they both want to win.
There is no much history between Lyon and Manchester City but the last time the two teams met in the Champions League, Lyon proved to be a better side. They met in the 2018-2019 UEFA Champions League group stage and City failed to win in a 2-legged encounter. Lyon won 2-1 at Etihad Stadium and when Manchester City visited them, the best the Premier League club could get was a 2-2 draw.
The Current form of Manchester City and Lyon
This is the 4th time in the last 5 seasons that Manchester City have made it to the quarter-final stage of the Champions League. Out of the four occasions, they only managed to scale through to the semi-final once in the 2015-2016 season by knocking out Paris Saint Germain, a French club.
On the other hand, Lyon has been struggling in the tournament. The last time the French club went as far as the quarter-final stage was in 2009-2010 season and that was the only time the club scale through to the semi-final after knocking out Bordeaux.
Meanwhile, City got to the quarter-final stage this season by doing the unthinkable, defeating Real Madrid 2-1 home and away. The club has won their last 6 out of 7 games scoring a whopping 23 goals and conceding just four.
On the other hand, Lyon have not been playing competitive matches since March. The last two times the French club played competitive matches were against PSG in the Coupe de Ligue final which they lost; and against Juventus in the last-16 stage of the Champions League which ended 2-2 but scaled through via away goals rule.
Team News – Manchester City
The manager of City, Pep Guardiola will be without one of his best strikers, Sergio Aguero. The Argentine football veteran is still unfit to play. Reports say he might be available for subsequent matches if City scale through this stage.
The three-match suspension of Benjamin Mendy is over which means that he would have to compete with Joao Cancelo for the city’s left-back position for tonight’s match.
Manchester City probable starting lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Fernandinho, Laporte, Cancelo; De Bruyne, Rodrigo, Gundogan; Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling
Manchester City Champions League form: WDDWWW
Manchester City form (all competitions): WWLWWW
Team News – Lyon
The manager of Lyon Rudi Garcia might be tempted to bring back Moussa Dembele who was not used in Lyon’s meeting with Juventus. Besides Dembele, there is no Lyon player that will not be fully available for the match.
Lyon probable starting lineup:
Lopes; Denayer, Marcelo, Marcal; Dubois, Caqueret, Guimaraes, Aouar, Cornet; Dembele, Depay
Lyon Champions League form: WLWDWL
Lyon form (all competitions): WWLLLL
