3 players who can ensure Man City beat Lyon

Manchester City head into Saturday’s single-legged Champions League quarter-final tie against Lyon as the clear favourites to progress.

Pep Guardiola’s side were 2-1 winners over Real Madrid last Friday to reach the final eight with a 4-2 aggregate score.

Lyon came through their Round of 16 tie on away goals against Juventus and will need to record another upset if they’re to reach the semi-finals, which would setup a tie versus either Bayern Munich or Barcelona.

In order for Manchester City not to slip up, here are three of their key players who can win them the tie versus the French Ligue 1 outfit:

Raheem Sterling

Lyon haven’t been the best at defending against wide players this season so this could be a perfect matchup for Raheem Sterling down the left. The Manchester City forward scored the opener versus Real Madrid last week to take his tally up to six in the Champions League this season.

Sterling’s pace could be a problem for Leo Dubois, whilst also dragging Jason Denayer out from his position of right centre-back in a back three. The England international has shown some good finishes when cutting inside on his stronger foot this season so don’t be surprised if he gets among the goals again.

Fernandinho

Manchester City have been weak at the back this season, but did end their Premier League campaign conceding just one goal in their final five matches. Memphis Depay has been Lyon’s star in the Champions League so far this campaign. The former-Manchester United man will likely play in a front two and drift out of to the left so Fernandinho could be provided support from Kyle Walker.

Moussa Dembele was the French side’s top scorer in the league this season but hasn’t broken his duck in the Champions League. He’ll be the other striker for the City defence to be wary of, but likely be marked by Aymeric Laporte rather than Fernandinho.

Kevin De Bruyne

Although an obvious choice to put on this list, if Manchester City don’t get it right defensively they are going to need to score a few at the other end. Guardiola is likely to include Kevin De Bruyne as one of his central midfield trio. The Belgian may want to drift out to the right where he can whip a number of dangerous crosses into the box for the likes of Gabriel Jesus to attack.

Lyon played with a midfield five in Turin last time out so space could be sparse for Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, but we all know that both remain capable of winning any game regardless.

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