Imperfect City rue missed chance

LISBON • Last season, Manchester City were denied a spot in the Champions League semi-finals after Raheem Sterling's late strike against Tottenham was ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR).

On Saturday, VAR again played a part, but there was also the familiar cocktail of defensive howlers and missed chances that prevented them from winning more than the League Cup this term.

After crashing out in the quarter-finals for the third straight season, going down 3-1 to Lyon in Lisbon, City manager Pep Guardiola admitted that his team were their own worst enemy, with the Spaniard yet to get beyond the last eight in his four years at the Etihad.

Despite City becoming football's first billion-dollar team since the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008, it will come as a massive disappointment to their owners that not only have they again missed out on an opportunity to win their maiden European Cup, but also make it to the semi-finals for just the second time after their first appearance in 2016.

Lamenting City's failings, Guardiola said: "One day, we'll break this gap to the quarter-finals. You have to be perfect in these competitions in one game and we weren't."

City looked disjointed from the start after the 49-year-old opted to go with three central defenders, including full-back Kyle Walker.

The England international was caught out of position as Karl Toko Ekambi was played onside and the loose ball fell to Maxwel Cornet, who curled home the opener for his fourth goal against City in three games.

Guardiola's men upped the pressure in the second half, leading to Kevin de Bruyne's equaliser, but substitute Moussa Dembele's strike to restore the French Ligue 1 side's lead was allowed to stand despite a VAR check for a trip on Aymeric Laporte.

Sterling then incredibly fired over with the goal gaping late on and the next piece of action saw Ederson fumble a routine shot by Houssem Aouar, allowing Dembele to grab his double and knock City out.

Laporte was incensed later, referencing a claim by pundit Rio Ferdinand that he had been fouled and tweeting: "Just to be clear, I will not hide, I'm a football player but a man foremost... this decision is hard to accept, especially in a crucial qualifier and with the help of VAR."

Neither Guardiola nor de Bruyne wished to dwell on the VAR call or Sterling's glaring miss, although the former Barcelona coach insisted that his tactics had been spot on despite criticism of his tinkering.

"In this competition, the tactics are not the most important thing," he told reporters.

"They (Lyon) are so fast and our central defenders are not so quick, so I didn't want to leave them two versus two.

"We worked for three days on this, we discussed it and we reviewed this and when you play like we did in the last 20 minutes, it shows the system is not the problem.

"This competition is that situation. You have to equalise and go to extra time and after, we concede the third goal.

"We create more chances, so we did everything but unfortunately, we are out again."

De Bruyne, who yesterday was named the Premier League Player of the Season for recording 20 assists to equal former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry's record in 2003, admitted that City would need to take a hard look at themselves after their latest heartbreak.

"I'm not going to blame (VAR), I think we should have done better," the Belgium midfielder told BT Sport.

"Different year, same stuff. We need to learn, it's not good enough."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS