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UEFA Champions League

LIVE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: MANCHESTER CITY 1-3 LYON

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It’s Lyon for the semi finals. They have sent Man City out!

Lyon substitution

90+3 mins

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Man City 1-3 Lyon

Moussa Dembele has now scored four goals in three appearances against Manchester City in the Champions League.

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He’s had two shots on target in the 18 minutes he’s now played.

90+1min: Into five added minutes as Lyon send on Jeff Reine-Adelaide for Karl Ekambi

Manchester City 1-3 Lyon

GOOALLL!!!!!

Gooooal!

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Dembélé (Lyon) scores!

86min: WHAT A MISS! Gabriel Jesus squares for Sterling to apply a simple tap-in but he somehow scoops it over the bar. That will haunt him if City go out here. Complete horror show.

Manchester City substitution

84min: David Silva is on for City as he replaces Rodri.

VAR check in progress79’Gooooal!

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Dembélé (Lyon) scores

Lyon substitution

71min: As Maxwel Cornet goes down under such minimal contact from Kyle Walker, with the referee not buying the penalty appeals, the French side make a change with Thiago Mendes replacing Bruno Guimaraes.

GOAL! MANCHESTER CITY 1-1 Lyon

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67 mins:Manchester City 0-1 Lyon

Kevin de Bruyne

64min: Another free-kick for City, this time it is about 23 yards just to the right after Marcelo is booked for bringing down Gabriel Jesus.

57 mins

SUBSTITUTION

Man City 0-1 Lyon

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The Lyon centre-backs have barely made a mistake. Rocks.

City have another corner but they make a change before the kick…

Riyad Mahrez comes on for Fernandinho, who was on a booking.

Manchester City 0-1 Lyon

54min: Fernandinho is on a yellow card, and Lyon certainly know it. Everytime he makes a challenge now, no matter how innocuous it is, a Lyon player milks it for all it is worth.

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Pep has seen enough by the way. Riyad Mahrez is getting ready to come on. 

Man City 0-1 Lyon

At the moment, the semi-finals looks like:

  • Two German teams
  • Two French teams
  • Three German managers of which none are Jurgen Klopp

2nd Half resumes

Half time; Man city 0-1 Lyon

+2 Added time

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Man City 0-1 Lyon

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Four minutes until half-time and Pep Guardiola’s side don’t look like scoring.

They have possession again though.

Manchester City 0-1 Lyon

30min: Already signs of frustration from City following Cornet’s goal as Fernandinho is booked for bringing down Aouar. Here is the probably case of City’s frustration again:

GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 LYON

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24min: The VAR check for offside is good and City are behind! Karl Ekambi beats the offside trap for a ball over the top and despite being caught by Eric Garcia, he plays the ball behind him blindly where from 23 yards Maxwel Cornet curls a cool finish past the advanced Ederson.

GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 LYON

GOAL – Man City 0-1 Lyon

Maxwel Cornet

He’s only gone and done it again!

VAR check

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Match Update

·  Garcia in for Foden City’s only change

·  Aouar fit after scare; Lyon unchanged

·  Winners face Bayern in semis

Manchester City 0-0 Lyon

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18min: Not many chances at all so far. Defences well on top.

Sterling had the best moment early on when he poked the ball past Anthony Lopes (below) but there was no team-mate to apply the finish.

Manchester City 0-0 Lyon

15min: Bit scrappy right now as Kevin de Bruyne escapes a booking after tripping Houssem Aouar. Was not much in it to be fair, and the referee agrees as he keeps his card in his pocket.

YELLOW CARD

Man City 0-0 Lyon

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Leo Dubois picks up the first booking because of a late tackle on Joao Cancelo. Ref Danny Makkelie had made up his mind before the Lyon man had time to perfect his aggrieved look.

10min: Good effort from Marcal, who drills a powerful low 23-yard drive towards goal, but Ederson does well to dive down low and collect.

6 mins

Post update

Man City 0-0 Lyon

Lyon are trying to play quite a high line, but that plays into the hands of someone like Raheem Sterling who will just find the space to run into.

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Kick off: City get this Champions League encounter underway

The last slot for the semi-final paring of the UEFA Champions League will be determined tonight as Premiership side, Manchester United face Ligue 1 team, Lyon. Last night, an exceptional goal feast was witnessed.

What will be the situation tonight in what has already been a wild week of last-eight action the teams are vying to take on Bayern Munich in the semi-finals who stunned Barcelona with  8-2.

City are favourites to progress to only their second ever Champions League semi-final but will have to guard against complacency when they take on a Lyon outfit who have already dumped Juventus out of the competition.

·  Manchester City starting XI: Ederson, Walker, Eric Garcia, Laporte, Joao Cancelo, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Rodri, De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling

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·  Lyon starting XI: Lopes, Denayer, Marcelo, Marcal, Dubois, Caqueret, Bruno Guimaraes, Aouar, Cornet, Depay, Toko Ekambi.

Sports Village Square will be offering reports on the proceedings of the match.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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UEFA Champions League

LaLiga to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League

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Soccer Football - Europa League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Athletic Bilbao v Rangers - San Mames, Bilbao, Spain - April 17, 2025 Athletic Bilbao fans REUTERS/Vincent West

Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.

LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.

England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.

Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.

They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.

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-Reuters

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UEFA Champions League

No complaints from Ancelotti, as Real humbled by Arsenal

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Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Real Madrid v Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - April 16, 2025 Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti reacts REUTERS/Juan Medina

Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.

“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”

When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.

But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.

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“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.

Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.

“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.

“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”

-Reuters

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UEFA Champions League

Arsenal cruise past lacklustre Real Madrid to reach semis

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Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Real Madrid v Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - April 16, 2025 Arsenal's Bukayo Saka scores their first goal Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY 

Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.

Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.

Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.

Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.

They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.

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“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.

“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”

A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.

But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.

“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”

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PENALTY MISS

Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.

Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.

Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.

It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.

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After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.

That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.

Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.

Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.

William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.

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Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.

-Reuters

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