3 Aug 2020
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Although there’s no room for complacency, Pep Guardiola couldn’t have hoped for kinder quarter-final opponents as Lyon are undoubtedly the weakest side left in the competition.
The French outfit can’t be taken lightly after downing Juventus over two legs on away goals, despite Cristiano Ronaldo’s best efforts, but they could only muster a seventh-placed finish in the suspended 2019/20 Ligue 1 season and hardly arrive in stellar form.
Lyon have now failed to win any of their past four competitive outings. They lost 5-1 and 1-0 to PSG and Lille respectively in March, lost on penalties to PSG in the Coupe de la League final at the end of last month, before going down 2-1 to Juventus in their second leg defeat in Turin.
Both Teams To Score
The underdogs still stand a good chance of scoring here. Their crucial 12th-minute penalty against Juventus last time out means they’ve drawn just two blanks in 16 Champions League games since the start of last season, which includes finding the net in five of six versus top teams Man City, Barcelona and Juventus. In fact, Lyon won 2-1 at the Etihad in last season’s group stages and drew 2-2 back in France.
City are capable of slipping up as they’ve demonstrated with defeats to Man Utd, Chelsea, Southampton and Arsenal since late February, even if that still leaves them with 15 wins from their last 19.
Man City To Win And Both Teams To Score
For all their well-documented problems at the back this term, they still kept 11 clean sheets over this period, though the majority of those did come against weaker opposition.
Lyon have key man Memphis Depay back from injury, while Moussa Dembele is hot property and wanted by many elite clubs, so we can certainly see them finding the net. However, Man City’s confidence will by sky high after convincingly knocking out Real Madrid, and should advance to the next round, albeit without a clean sheet.
Gabriel Jesus To Score Anytime
Rudi Garcia will be sweating on the fitness of Marcelo at centre-back, but we doubt his presence will be enough to stem waves of City attacks. Guardiola will likely still be without Sergio Aguero up top, but Gabriel Jesus is in a rich vein of form and alongside Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling, relentlessly pressed Real Madrid on Friday.
Even the first leg saw Guardiola leave a fit Aguero on the bench, and given Jesus now has five goals in his last three in this competition, and rounded off the Premier League campaign with goals in four of City’s last five games, he looks set to continue his hot streak.
0.5pts: Gabriel Jesus To Score Anytime At 19/20
Manchester City To Win And Both Teams To Score At 15/8
ODDS FOR MANCHESTER CITY V LYON AVAILABLE HERE
ODDS ARE CORRECT AS OF 8/8/2020 HOWEVER ARE SUBJECT TO FLUCTUATIONS
