Three Takeaways: Manchester City out of the Champions League
Manchester City’s European woes continued once again as they wasted a massive Champions League opportunity at the hands of an inferior Lyon at the quarterfinal stage.
Manchester City’s Champions League dream came to a frustrating and disappointing end on Saturday at the hands of poor tactics, a less than inspiring performance, and of course, massive VAR controversy.
To give credit where it’s due, Lyon defended effectively in numbers and punished three defensive errors from City, but as a team that finished seventh in Ligue 1 they were clearly the inferior side and were not brilliant by any means. City’s season will now unequivocally go down as a failure, and it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of supporters heading into next season.
1. Pep overthinks it, again.
Pep Guardiola is known as a manager for unexpected tactical strokes of genius. However, today’s shape and lineup was not inspired by some crack in the Lyon armor unforeseen by the fans and media, but rather, by fear. Despite having better players, he chose not to impose his will on Lyon but rather to conform to them, playing a back five to keep Lyon out at all costs that backfired completely.
Not only did City create next to nothing over the first 45 minutes, but they ironically let in the type of counter-attacking goal the system was supposed to prevent. Caught between two minds, City dug themselves in a hole that was ultimately too deep to climb out of, despite playing better for spells in the second half after the team reverted to its usual shape. Much like the first leg against Spurs last year, when Guardiola’s defensive attitude cut the team’s attack at the knees, he has overthought it in the Champions League again and is primarily at fault for the defeat today. He’s a brilliant manager, but just as we give him credit when he is great, he must be blamed when his tactics directly hamper the players’ chances at victory, and today, he simply did not learn from his old mistakes.
2. VAR controversy, again.
Lyon’s winning goal should have been disallowed on two different fronts, but was miraculously allowed to stand. First and foremost, the ball on the break was played for Karl Toko Ekambi, who was clearly in an offside position, interfering with play and causing the defenders to stop when he allowed the ball to roll through his legs.
This is offside, but even if he was judged to not interfere with play, Moussa Dembélé opens the space by clattering into Aymeric Laporte, which appeared to be a simple, clean-cut, and obvious foul. Nevertheless, both the referee and VAR ignored this, allowing a dubious goal to stand. Once again, this is ironic, considering that Lyon had complained about the referee selection before the game, perhaps even to subconsciously influence him to “even things out” and avoid any potential fears of bias toward City.
Just as Fernando Llorente’s highly suspect goal last year caused a change in the handball law to where the ball cannot strike the arm in any part of the buildup before scoring, perhaps IFAB will look closely at this Dembélé goal and clarify what qualifies as interfering with play from an offside position.
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3. European heartbreak, again.
While City’s path to the final was anything but straightforward with a potential date against clear favorite Bayern Munich in the semi-final, City had a clear opportunity against a weaker side once again and failed to meet expectations. It bears remarkable similarity to last season’s collapse against Tottenham, even if the individual situations could not be more different.
Perhaps the expectations themselves are the problem. It is simply reality that football moves in cycles, and that Guardiola has not won the Champions League since 2011. Champions League winners have grit, determination, and steel that this team consistently showed it did not throughout 2019-20. Even though expecting European glory seems natural, perhaps it takes something different than what it does to win the Premier League. Fans will chalk it up to VAR or the lack of quality defenders once again, but at the end of the day, perhaps there is a greater root cause behind all of it.