Pep Guardiola tinkered with his Manchester City side, but Rudi Garcia was delighted to find his Lyon selection more effective.
Rudi Garcia proudly announced Lyon "won the tactical battle" against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in their shock Champions League win.
Lyon reached the semi-finals with a 3-1 success in Lisbon on Saturday as City were dumped out at the quarter-final stage for the third season running.
Maxwel Cornet scored midway through the first half and Lyon rallied again following Kevin De Bruyne's equaliser, with substitute Moussa Dembele on target twice.
Lyon lined up with a 3-5-2 formation, which City matched, but Garcia's side looked far more comfortable than their opponents.
The coach explained to RMC Sport: "You have to expect everything with Guardiola, but we won the tactical battle.
"We have mastered our formation well. We have returned to a hybrid set-up to stop De Bruyne."
Tactics were not the only route to victory, though, with Garcia hailing Lyon's team spirit as they battled hard against apparently superior opposition.
"I'm proud of my troops," he said. "We believed in ourselves. We knew we were not favourites against a big team, but we managed to qualify by scoring three goals and conceding only one.
"It is linked to our collective spirit. We saw everyone working to a high level for each other."
Garcia was also pleased for Dembele, who started from the bench but made a decisive impact.
"It was a disappointment for Dembele not to start, but I told him that he would be very important," Garcia revealed.
EmiraK
565
I hail Cristiano Ronaldo for his performance against Lyon. This team is very difficult to play with the way they attack.
ShreekarMishra
554
Lyon when they realise they have to face bayern
fauimopruz
525
Congrats Lyon... U showed the footballing world that tactics, passion and spirit win over oil money!
Playboy01
455
Journalist: "So what are your plans for Lyon" Pep: "We'll put them in a very difficult situation" Journalist: "How?" Pep: "We'll make them face Bayern Munich" ๐๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
havinassh0402
446
mzeereal
346
Lyon coach is making some progress which no one can imagine at this moment.. Beating pep and the old lady is making this team more strong psychologically...
Vodacenors
191
Give this guy a badge . Honestly beating Juv and City with the squad he has!! Just look at Barca some of the best players but the worst team and these guys have a very good team. This year more than players a lot of great managers have emerged. This guy along with Atlantas and RB Leipzigs manager.
vijaykrish
103
Lyon not only beat pep tactics, they won the pride of their league, two ligue1 teams in top 4...and a chance for both teams to make finals... Congrats lyon๐๐๐๐๐
HamzaMalik22
16
what if Lyon and RB face each other in final that would be insane.