Lopes pays tribute to under-fire Lyon coach Genesio

Nabil Fekir and Maxwel Cornet did the damage as Lyon left Manchester City with a 2-1 win, relieving pressure on Bruno Genesio.

Published : Sep 20, 2018 08:27 IST

Lyon stars celebrate against Manchester City
Lyon stars celebrate against Manchester City
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Lyon stars celebrate against Manchester City

Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes paid tribute to under-fire coach Bruno Genesio after its 2-1 Champions League victory at Manchester City, saying the win was for him.

A fine first-half performance in Manchester laid the foundations for a famous triumph on Wednesday, as Maxwel Cornet and Nabil Fekir scored goals that ultimately secured the win in spite of Bernardo Silva's second-half effort.

Lyon went into the match on the back of a 2-2 Ligue 1 draw with Caen, having picked up just a single victory in the league so far this term.

Such form put Genesio under pressure, but the coach certainly appears to have the backing of his players.

Read: Cornet and Fekir stun City at home

"We came here a little off colour," Lopes told RMC Sport. "We wanted to try to find ourselves.

"There are beautiful things that can happen to us. Genesio was criticised, sometimes unjustly.

"We managed to get out all we had in us this evening. We proved that Lyon are always a threat. We all did it for the coach, who was a bit in trouble."

Fekir also focused on Lyon's form heading into the match and hailed the scale of the achievement at beating City on their own turf.

"It's something big that we did," he added. "The match in Caen was not good, we knew what had to be corrected, and we did it.

"When we are together, we can do good things. We did not come to defend, we tried to play even if we did not have possession of the ball. We managed to do some good things and we were rewarded.

"We knew we needed everyone defensively, and it paid off. We showed what we were capable of."

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