Cornet, Dembele match Messi as Lyon stars continue to haunt Manchester City

Maxwel Cornet and Moussa Dembele continue to haunt Manchester City as the Lyon stars equaled Lionel Messi on Saturday with their goals against the Premier League side.

The duo combined to score three on Saturday, leading Lyon to the Champions League semifinals with a 3-1 victory over City.

Cornet left Pep Guardiola’s side stunned in the first half of the Champions League quarterfinal as he fired underdog Lyon into the lead. Cornet’s big moment came in the 23rd minute as Lyon forward Karl Toko Ekambi broke free from the City backline.

Following a spectacular tackle from Eric Garcia to dispossess Toko Ekambi, Cornet pounced as he fired a shot past Ederson and into the back of the net.

The goal gave Lyon a 1-0 lead, but it wasn’t the first time Cornet had gotten the better of the City defense.

He previously terrorised the City rearguard in the 2018-19 Champions League, as Lyon and City squared off in the group stage. After scoring the first of two goals in a 2-1 win at the Etihad in the first match of the group stage, Cornet fired two more in their second clash, a 2-2 draw in France.

In the second half of Saturday’s clash, City fired back through Kevin De Bruyne, with the Belgian leveling the match 1-1 before Dembele added two goals of his own to seal Lyon’s win.

Dembele had previously fired a brace as a member of Celtic, when the French forward led the way in a 3-3 draw with City in September 2016.

With Saturday’s goals, Cornet and Dembele each have four goals against City in the Champions League, giving them the joint-most goals against the club in the competition since Guardiola took over in 2016.

Only Messi has scored the same amount since the Catalan arrived at the Etihad, with the Argentine firing four times as Barcelona faced off with his former manager in the group stage in 2016.

Cornet has not had a particularly prolific campaign for Lyon, having fired only four goals in 22 Ligue 1 matches this season. The Ivorian international joined Lyon from Metz in 2015, having made at least 36 appearances in each of his first five full seasons with the Ligue 1 side. 

Dembele, meanwhile, joined Lyon in 2018, scoring 31 league goals over his first two seasons with the club.

Lyon finished the 2019-20 campaign seventh in Ligue 1 after the French season was halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. The French side did, however, stun Juventus to advance to the quarterfinals, going through on away goals despite losing the second leg 2-1.