Champions League: Lyon condemn Maurizio Sarri to Juventus axe as Manchester Metropolis outwit Actual Madrid to make quarter-finals (VIDEO)

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There can be no sixth Champions League title for Cristiano Ronaldo this season after Juventus had been ousted on the spherical of 16 stage by Lyon, whereas Man Metropolis once more beat Actual Madrid 2-1 to achieve subsequent week’s quarter-finals in Lisbon.

The long-awaited return of the Champions League turned a superb evening for relative newcomers to the latter phases of Europe’s most prestigious membership competitors.

Neither Lyon nor Manchester Metropolis have ever gone past the semi-finals, and the membership that completed seventh in Lique 1, profitable solely 11 of their 28 league video games whereas sneaking by way of to the spherical of 16 after ending second of their group, regarded to have a precarious 1-Zero lead towards a Juventus facet, Cristiano Ronaldo and all, who had been thought to have underperformed within the first leg on the Groupama Stadium in February.

What no-one appeared to say was that the guests had a captain in Netherlands striker Memphis Depay with a objective on every of his appearances within the Champions League this season, and a younger playmaker in Houssem Aouar whose six assists made him the equal of Lionel Messi for the reason that begin of final season when it comes to offering objectives.

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That partnership led to the primary objective in Turin, when Aouar was considerably dubiously adjudged to have been fouled, permitting Depay to please in chipping an impudent Panenka penalty for the 12th-minute opener, stranding Wojciech Szczęsny as Juventus’s poor defensive document continued.

All of a sudden requiring three objectives to avoid wasting an underwhelming season, Juve toiled, counting on a blinding run from Federico Bernardeschi that just about noticed him strolling the ball into the web from the byline and a sometimes fearsome Ronaldo free-kick that Anthony Lopes did brilliantly to second-guess, taking an important step to his proper simply as the hassle was struck, permitting him to claw the ball away.

The match may have been far much less fascinating however for a call from referee Felix Zwayer that was baffling the place his earlier intervention had been poor, punishing Depay for dealing with a shot that had been hammered straight at him from shut distance.

Ronaldo duly scored to present Juve greater than a glimmer of hope on the break earlier than virtually dragging them again into the competition within the second half, scoring a thunderbolt from outdoors the penalty space on the hour that gave Lopes little likelihood of something greater than scorched fingers.

The difficulty for the hosts, because it has been all season, was that they regarded burdened by their reliance on Ronaldo, particularly after the one striker more likely to provide one other supply of inspiration, Paulo Dybala, hobbled off dejectedly virtually as quickly as he had been launched.

Lyon may need anticipated extra of an onslaught than they endured, however they nonetheless carried out admirably to retain their composure and attain the quarter-finals.

Coach Rudy Garcia secured simply his seventh win in 30 Champions League matches and was below no illusions about fairly what an achievement it had been to carry out at one of many event favorites, whereas Lopes celebrated with justifiable exuberance on the closing whistle.

There was little shock when Juventus eliminated their hangdog coach, Maurizio Sarri, the next day, the coach having appeared to log off on his sacking by claiming that he had anticipated his facet to carry out worse than they did on the evening.

Sarri’s predecessor, Max Allegri, departed on the finish of final season as a result of the membership’s hierarchy wished to win in additional lavish model domestically and have a complete tilt at profitable the Champions League.

Underneath Sarri, they finally received the league by some extent after a wretched finish to the season that included their first house defeat since 2018, in addition to not often trying like true contenders on the European stage.

Metropolis, in the meantime, can be cautious of Lyon within the subsequent spherical, having misplaced 2-1 to them of their opening group stage recreation at house final season.

That was the scoreline by which they beat Actual Madrid on the Etihad Stadium to safe their progress with a Four-2 mixture win that regarded comfy as soon as it turned clear that Pep Guardiola and his gamers had been rigorously finding out Madrid’s defensive paucity below strain.

Fortunately for Guardiola, Metropolis are decided and harmful pressers, and out-of-sorts defender Raphael Varane confirmed his discomfort with the strategy by gifting possession to Gabriel Jesus deep inside his personal territory, permitting the striker to sq. for a easy end by England ahead Raheem Sterling to place them forward after 9 minutes.

As with Juve, that gave the Liga champions a mountain to climb early on, and though prime scorer Karim Benzema replied after 28 minutes, there was by no means a lot doubt that Metropolis would maintain on to the late benefit that Jesus and Kevin de Bruyne had given them on the Bernabeu.

Unusually for Madrid – and with somewhat assist from Barcelona’s travails – they end a marketing campaign with league somewhat than European glory to look again on, having beforehand received the Champions League 4 occasions since 2012, in comparison with simply a single Liga title earlier than their triumph this season.

Zinedine Zidane has lastly been knocked out of the competitors as a coach and won’t be profitable it for the fourth time himself, and Metropolis will fancy their probabilities of reaching the ultimate 4 for the primary time since 2016, albeit towards their harmful French opponents.

In case you may ever describe one of many richest golf equipment on the earth as underdogs, Metropolis definitely regarded like that they had some extent to show of their first fixture since their ban from competing was overturned, and fatalists have lengthy joked that nothing has made Guardiola’s facet extra more likely to win the trophy than virtually being banned from collaborating in any respect.

Aouar, Depay and associates can have one thing to say about that, understanding that they may by no means have a greater alternative of their very own within the one-legged semi-final subsequent Saturday.

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Paulo Dybala and Juventus teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. © Reuters
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