Champions League

MANCHESTER CITY know they will dominate the game against Lyon.
Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan will be given freedom with the ball from midfield, while Raheem Sterling will be given plenty of chances to make an impact.

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Kyle Walker’s covering pace could be crucial for Manchester City as they will not only need patience but also the ability to halt Lyon counter-attacks Credit: Getty Images – Getty
This should not be a surprise.
In the Champions League this season, Lyon have had less possession on four occasions — winning two, drawing one and losing one.
That loss was away to Juventus in the last 16 and they won on away goals.Over both ties against the  Italians, they averaged just 37 per cent possession.
Against semi-finalists RB Leipzig in the group stage, they picked up three points with just 41 per cent possession.

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Attacking talents like Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan should receive plenty of space in deep positionsCredit: Getty – Contributor
Having less of the ball is their preference.
And Lyon are comfortable playing away from home — their away record in Ligue 1 is played 15, won six, drawn three and lost six, which was the third best in the division.
So for City, this will not be about how they can dominate possession.
Instead, it will be about making sure they cannot be caught on the counter.With this in mind, one of the most important players on the pitch will be Kyle Walker.

It would be wrong to suggest the England full-back is under-rated but he, perhaps, is not spoken about in the same vein as City’s wealth of superstars.
But he is incredibly important to Pep Guardiola and what he needs from his full-back playing his highly adaptable version of a 4-3-3.

Walker’s pace will be crucial in nullifying Cornet’s eye for a counter. Stop Cornet and you stop one of Lyon’s main attacking outlets playing from deep.

It’s a system that has worked very well for Pep over the last couple of years but there is  always that danger of becoming vulnerable in certain areas. Extra protection is needed.
Rodri is the holding midfielder, while De Bruyne and Gundogan push forward.
The left-back, whether it is Joao Cancelo, Oleksandr Zinchenko or Benjamin Mendy, is the attacking outlet.

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Rodri, seen arriving with Aymeric Laporte, could have a pivotal role getting behind Lyon out wideCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Walker also gets forward but, more often than not, he tucks in from the right to play as that  second defensive midfielder alongside Rodri.
This gives them a solid platform to deal with the counter, maintaining a four-man defence at the back.
This will be key for Walker and, subsequently, City as a whole, when they come up against one of Lyon’s biggest attacking threats  in Maxwel Cornet.
He has been converted from an attacking, speedy winger into a clever wing-back who picks and chooses his moments to burst  forward into space to bring Lyon up the pitch.
Pep will know all about him — he scored three of Lyon’s four goals when they met City in the 2018-19 competition.
Walker’s pace will therefore be crucial in nullifying Cornet’s eye for a counter.

City need width to stretch Lyon as much as possible. There may be some fragility at the back for City but their attacking talent will be enough

Stop Cornet and you ultimately stop one of Lyon’s main attacking outlets playing from deep.
But City cannot just rely on Walker to ensure Lyon are kept at bay. That starts from City’s attacking three.
Their collective press is phenomenal, just ask Raphael Varane.
He was pickpocketed for both City goals as they knocked out Real Madrid at the Etihad.
City commit so many players forward that when it is lost, they know how to press in a certain way to win the ball back as quickly as possible.
They squeeze you inwards, back towards your own goal.
The likelihood is Lyon will defend with a back five, so when City do have the ball, Sterling will be an important outlet.

He will have to figure out in the first five minutes just how to  create space effectively.
Sterling can either play more centrally, encouraging the left-back to overlap and create more space out wide.
Or he can go wide himself as KDB and Gundogan go through the middle to exploit the gaps between the centre-backs and wing-backs.
In my opinion, it will be the  latter. City need width to stretch Lyon as much as possible. There may be some fragility at the back for City but their attacking talent will be enough.
Coming back from lockdown after watching Liverpool stroll to a Premier League title, the determination and desire will be greater than ever to end this season with a bang.

For all Guardiola has done since he joined in 2016, he was brought in to deliver the Holy Grail — a Champions League.
All the great teams have one in the bag. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Liverpool.
A win for City will elevate them into that bracket. They will go all guns blazing to get it.

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RIO FERDINAND almost choked on his ice cream as Pep Guardiola tried to convince the hundreds and thousands.
Manchester City boss Pep insisted this week he would not be a failure if he did not deliver the Champions League trophy to the Etihad.

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Whatever he claims, manager Pep Guardiola will be defined at Man City by whether or not he helps them win the Champions LeagueCredit: Getty Images – Getty

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Rio Ferdinand turns the heat up on Pep Guardiola as he keeps cool with BT presenter James RichardsonCredit: C1 MEDIA
The Spaniard claimed the friendships he has formed in the UK, as well as the six domestic honours he has guided the club to since his appointment as manager in 2016, would more than compensate for missing out on the prize he was brought into win.
And while former Champions League-winning captain Rio is still able to scoff down a Mr Whippy with the best of them, he could not swallow Guardiola’s comments.
Ferdinand, who skippered Manchester United to Europe’s biggest honour in 2008, said: “Listen, with the competitive spirit Guardiola has, the perfectionist he seems to be and the obsessive nature he has, he would not be happy if he walked away from City without winning the Champions League.
“He was probably more successful at Bayern Munich than he has been at City but the fact he didn’t win the Champions League in Germany will always taint his time there.

“That is due to the level he has operated at in the past and the standards he set himself at Barcelona.

I’m not saying he would be unsuccessful if he doesn’t manage to win it. But he would not have done what was on the tin.
Rio Ferdinand

“I think it would be the same if this was to happen again at City.
“He has been brought in by their owners specifically to win the Champions League, whether he likes it or not.
“They were winning the Premier League before he arrived.

“So he hasn’t so far achieved anything at City that nobody else has.
“He can say what he wants about not being judged on the Champions League because he has to protect himself — but he has been brought in to win this tournament.
“I’m not saying he would be unsuccessful if he doesn’t manage to win it. But he would not have done what was on the tin.”
City take on Lyon in their Champions League quarter-final in Lisbon tomorrow night.
Guardiola, 49, guided Barcelona to the trophy twice during his four years in charge at the Nou Camp.

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Lyon players arrive at their hotel ahead of facing overwhelming favourites Man CityCredit: AFP or licensors
But he was unable to boss Bayern to the top Euro crown, despite three Bundesliga titles.
Pep has led City to back-to-back Premier League triumphs but the Champions League has so far eluded them and him.
They are massive favourites to reach the semi-finals but Lyon took four points off them in the group stage during the 2018-19 campaign.
Rio said: “That will still be in the back of City’s players’ minds.
“So they’ll need to come out of the blocks quickly to erase those memories, because there can be hangovers if you don’t start well.
“What I like about this Lyon team is they set up mainly three at the back and they can defend really well.
“But they don’t show people too much respect and they could be a banana skin for City.
“There is no way they are going to come out, look at City and all the players they have and sit back.
“They’ll be remembering they took four points off them last season as well, and they will know City are not unbeatable.
“This is a difficult tie for Guardiola. I am sure he would have picked a number of other teams to play ahead of Lyon.
“All the pressure is on City because they are massive favourites. But they are used to it.

It’s about being adaptable and respecting the tournament. City sometimes have been their own worst enemy in Europe.
Rio Ferdinand

“They’ve probably won 85 per cent of domestic trophies in the last five years.
“They have been tremendous in that respect, so being favourites will not be an issue for them, I am sure.”
But Ferdinand, 41, believes City have to make changes to their game if they are to transfer their domestic superiority into Europe.
He added: “You have to play differently in the Champions League to the way you do in the Premier League.
“It’s very different. You’re playing against different players and better players more often than not, because it’s the elite tournament. So you have to adapt your game.
“For many years at United we were going into Champions League games gung-ho and still playing attacking, free-flowing football as if we were in the Premier League.
“But if you look at the years we were successful in Europe, in the big games we were stiff and hard to play against.”
‘MORE LIKE FA CUP’
Ferdinand continued: “We knew we had players who could hurt teams on the attack in Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney, Nani, Louis Saha and Dimitar Berbatov.
“But we had to be solid first and that was a very different approach to when we’d play teams in the Premier League.
“It’s about being adaptable and respecting the tournament.
“City sometimes have been their own worst enemy in Europe.
“There have been times when they’ve had games by scruff of the neck and they’ve stuck to their guns and played to their principles — instead of saying ‘Right, let’s shut the tie down and keep what we’ve got’ — and they’ve been punished.
“With the ties just one game this time, game management is even more important this time.

“The format means the Champions League will be almost like the FA Cup and we know the shocks that can happen when it’s just one game. Anyone can beat anyone.
“Whereas over two legs you would have fancied the bigger, stronger clubs with deep squads, one-legged ties make it a bit of a leveller.”
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