Typical Man City suffer Champions League disaster against Lyon

Manchester City crashed out of the Champions League in controversial circumstances, but they brought it on themselves again

Typical City is alive and kicking, even in the Champions League quarter-final.

Even as Blues haters were salivating at the prospect of what goal-hungry Bayern Munich might do to them in the semi-final, City flummoxed them by losing to lowly Lyon.

Ad they did it in the manner of Alan Ball, Jamie Pollock and Steve Daley - with daft mistakes and a incredible miss from Raheem Sterling.

There was also a mass tinker by Pep Guardiola, whose obsession with trying to bamboozle the opposition with odd team selections and unpredictable tactics, was a part of City's undoing.

The Blues were discombobulated by the switch and only started to play once the back three was discarded and they played a more familiar style.

And when Kevin De Bruyne equalised Maxwell Cornet's first half goal, it seemed they were heading for that titanic showdown with Bayern, 8-2 conquerors of Barcelona.

Defending like this, it is a small mercy that they did not face the Germans.

Then it all turned - an agonising VAR wait as City players protested a foul in the build-up resulted in Moussa Dembele's goal being awarded.

Again City seemed to have come back but Sterling missed an incredible open goal, and Lyon went up the other end to capitalise on a fluffed save from Ederson.

There are critics of Guardiola that he over-thinks things sometimes, and those who believe that were handed plenty of evidence here.

The fact that Eric Garcia, Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte were all on the teamsheet, handed in 75 minutes before kick off, spoke of a back three.

But it could have been any one of several permutations, given the City manager's penchant for surprise tactical set-ups.