Manchester City, presumably, can't be expected to raise their level in the Champions League given the dominance they exert over their domestic league.
Pep's guys were shocked 2-1 at home to Lyon last night, with first-half goals by Mawel Cornet and Nabil Fekir capping a bewilderingly poor opening half by City. The introduction of Leroy Sané jolted City into life in the second half, and while he provided a goal for Bernardo Silva, City ultimately couldn't avoid a fifth Champions League defeat in six games. (Okay, this is a slightly misleading statistic - two of these came in meaningless games against Basel and Shaktar).
Rafael Da Silva, who played 76 minutes at right-back for Lyon, also led on a slightly errant stat in his triumphant post-game interview with Jan-Aage Fjortoft. Rafael confirmed it was "a good feeling" to win at the Etihad given his ties with United, although his claim that he had never lost a game at the ground is slightly wrong - he was part of the United team that lost a 2010 League Cup semi-final first leg 2-1 at the Etihad, although United ultimately won the tie at Old Trafford.
Rafael confirmed his status as a United fan, and said that many of his former teammates are "surely" happy at his role in this result. Rafael also confirmed that Darren Fletcher primed him for the game with a message yesterday, although as of last night was stiill waiting for the congratulatory messages to roll in.
Anyway, enough of the Graeme Souness being bitter bollocks. Here's Rafael Da Silva, bragging about never losing at the Etihad and being a United fan, after Lyon beat City pic.twitter.com/tVwUOGnnUD
— Jay (@RFFH) September 20, 2018
