Lyon vs Manchester City: Late Sergio Aguero equaliser secures Champions League progression for Pep Guardiola

Lyon 2-2 Manchester City: The hosts led twice in a thrilling game but couldn't hold on for victory

Sergio Aguero celebrates after his late header rescued City (AP)

Pep Guardiola was vindicated in Lyon tonight, but not in the way he might want. Guardiola has been at pains to point out that whatever people might think, the Champions League is a difficult competition full of dangerous teams, and that success in it is far harder work than some might expect.

This evening at the Groupama Stadium City’s players proved him thumpingly right, getting outplayed by Lyon and scraping a 2-2 draw. That point secures City’s passage through to the last-16 of Champions League, although it was not enough to ensure that they win Group F. For that they will need to avoid defeat to Hoffenheim at home in two weeks’ time, which should prove easy enough.

And yet it was the performance, rather than the result, that will stay longest in the memory from City here. It was, with the exception of their 2-1 defeat at home to Lyon back in September, the worst they have played this season. In truth they should have lost this game too, and with eight minutes left they were 2-1 down again. Sergio Aguero rescued them with a header but it was intriguing, given how many brilliant performances we have seen from City this season, to see one from the other end of the scale.

So often this City team takes hold of the game in midfield and never lets go, but this was different. Lyon were far too canny for them, with the nimble Tanguy Ndombele in front of their defence, helped out by the canny Houssem Aouar. Pep Guardiola’s midfield options were limited, with Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne all injured. So he decided to play Raheem Sterling there for the first time, hoping that he could dribble forward with the ball to attack Lyon’s centre-backs.

Maxwel Cornet scored a stunning goal to break the deadlock (Getty)

But in truth, it did not work and City struggled to get a foothold in the midfield. They could not put the same pressure on the ball that they like to and it was so easy for Lyon to counter them that it felt like watching a throwback to the City side of 2016. Lyon’s front line of Nabil Fekir, Memphis Depay and Maxwel Cornet took City apart in the first hour and with better finishing Lyon should have scored four or five.

This year City are setting a new Premier League record for how few shots on target they are conceding, which is why it was so surprising to see Lyon racing away through them so often early on. With Oleksandr Zinchenko pushing into midfield to partner Fernandinho, there was space down the outside of City’s back three and Lyon knew how to use it. Zinchenko had to block Cornet’s header before Kyle Walker had to stop Depay from scoring. From the other side, Ferland Mendy crossed for Cornet, who got his first touch wrong when the goal was gaping. By the end of the first half City were hanging on, waiting for the whistle, as Cornet struck a bicycle kick against the woodwork.

Aymeric Laporte headed home the first of City’s equalisers (Getty)

It was the type of first half that normally prompts City into improvement. And yet here it only took them 10 minutes of the second half to concede he goal they had been threatening all night. The defence switched off again from a free-kick, Depay found Cornet cutting in from the right. Zinchenko was too slow to close him down so Cornet curled the ball with his left boot into the far corner of the net. It was what he and his team deserved after coming so close to scoring so often before then.

City got back into the game when Laporte headed in the second ball from a Sterling free-kick, but it was just a respite. Because the structural problems that put City behind were still true even at 1-1. Lyon were sharper and quicker than them, and always able to get in behind. City failing once again to put enough pressure on the ball, Depay rolled a pass through to Cornet, racing behind Laporte. He slid home his second, and Lyon were back in front.

The first time Lyon were ahead, City took seven minutes to equalise. This time they only needed two. Another set-piece, another header, not exactly classic Guardiola, and not exactly deserved. But when Mahrez whipped in his left-footed corner, there was Aguero, quiet all night, to nod in at the near post. City were through, and Guardiola was right.