Lyon coach Rudi Garcia hailed his group for seeing off Juventus and the “extraterrestial” Cristiano Ronaldo to achieve the Champions League quarter-finals on Friday. Captain Memphis Depay’s early penalty sealed Lyon’s berth within the last-eight regardless of dropping 2-1 on the night time in Turin. A purpose up after successful February’s first leg, Lyon will face Manchester Metropolis on the remaining event in Lisbon after drawing 2-2 on mixture and going via on away objectives. “We got here up towards an opponent who has an extraterrestrial in its squad,” mentioned Garcia of five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo who scored each of Juve’s objectives on Friday.
Lyon squeezed previous the Italian champions due to Depay’s 12th-minute penalty which put Garcia’s aspect two objectives forward within the tie and left Juve with a mountain to climb.
Needing to attain three unanswered objectives as a way to undergo, Portuguese star Ronaldo tried his finest to tug the Italian champions over the road.
He levelled the scores on the night time with a penalty of his personal with two minutes left within the opening interval earlier than crashing residence a second purpose on the hour mark.
Nevertheless Juve carried out poorly and Lyon managed to carry on to arrange a conflict with Pep Guardiola’s City, who put out 13-time winners Actual Madrid, on August 15.
“I believe we did very nicely within the first half,” added Garcia.
“Sadly the penalty awarded to them, which was utterly unjustified, put them again within the recreation.”
“That is the victory of a gaggle. We wished to be within the Remaining eight in Lisbon, we’re there.
“We’ll nonetheless be outsiders and that fits us very nicely.”
Regardless of their 9 consecutive Italian league titles in a row, Juventus couldn’t get previous a French aspect that completed seventh in Ligue 1 this season.
“We went out due to the primary half in Lyon,” mentioned Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri.
“I am devastated, however glad with the efficiency. We’re very sorry. We had a very good recreation tonight.”
Ronaldo spearheaded the Juventus assault because the five-time Champions League winner pushed for a last-eight spot in his native Portugal.
Lyon’s early breakthrough got here after Rodrigo Bentancur was judged to have fouled Houssem Aouar, and Depay calmly slotted previous Wojciech Szczesny from the spot.
Juventus had dominated play early with Federico Bernardeschi dribbling via the Lyon defence after 19 minutes earlier than Marcelo deflected the shot away from purpose.
Ronaldo despatched a header broad after 21 minutes with Lopes denying a curling Ronaldo free kick, however he drew Juve degree from the spot simply earlier than the break when Depay handballed a Miralem Pjanic free-kick.
The Portuguese then scored a second lengthy vary effort, with Leonardo Bonucci lacking an opportunity minutes later.
Paulo Dybala got here on with 20 minutes to go however did not carry the Italians, with the Argentine who had been carrying a thigh damage, limping off quarter of an hour later.
Promoted
Ronaldo missed an opportunity to win the tie when he despatched a header broad, ending Juventus’ hopes of a primary Champions League title since 1996.
Juve, who had received solely two of their final eight league video games, finish the season within the worst attainable means, exhausted by the buildup of matches interrupted for 3 months due to coronavirus.
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