The Ligue 1 club opened the scoring through Maxwel Cornet and, although they were tied in the second half, fired twice late through substitute Moussa Dembele to seal their second trip to the competition’s semifinals.
Lyon are the surprise team
Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes welcomed his side’s performance after they kicked Manchester City out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals. The Ligue 1 club opened the scoring through Maxwel Cornet and, although they were tied in the second half, fired twice late through substitute Moussa Dembele to seal their second trip to the competition’s semifinals. Despite already reporting for Juventus, beating Italy on away goals after a 2-2 draw in aggregate, few gave Lyon hope to oust City and set up a date with Bayern Munich on Wednesday. It’s incredible because we’re the surprise team,” Lopes explained to journalists. “Nobody expected us to be at this level. We have the right to keep dreaming, to believe in what we can do.”
The club is going match by match
The Lyon-born Portugal international meanwhile suggested that coach Rudi Garcia deserves credit for what the club has achieved. “Our system helps us a lot by playing with five from behind,” he said. “We knew that we would have chances and that we would have to take them. We are delighted to be a club like Manchester City. You play football to experience such matches. Now, we are in the semifinals, and we will go to try and continue our nice little match. Meanwhile, goal hero Dembele said: “We knew it was going to be a tough match against a big team. It’s not easy when you’re on the bench, but I told myself that I was going to give my all. We promised ourselves to give everything at half-time, and that’s what we did.”
“The mentality has changed in the lineup. There is always sadness not to start, but I tried to bring my stone into the building at the end. We are going match by match. There is no point in seeing ourselves too beautiful, too fast.” Lyon’s previous trip to the semifinals was in 2010 when they were knocked out 4-0 on aggregate by Bayern Munich.