Man City fight back at Lyon to earn a place in the last 16

Manchester City’s Aymeric Laporte celebrates scoring their first goal - Action Images via Reuters

LYON, France (Reuters): Manchester City progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League from Group F on Tuesday after twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 with Olympique Lyonnais, a team Pep Guardiola hailed as one of the toughest he has ever faced.

Goals from Maxwel Cornet were cancelled out by Aymeric Laporte and Sergio Aguero to leave City top of the group on 10 points. Lyon are second on seven points, two ahead of Shakhtar Donetsk who snatched a late 3-2 win at Hoffenheim to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last 16.

Guardiola’s City side often found themselves on the back foot in France and struggled to contain Ivorian forward Cornet who went close to scoring after half an hour but a heavy touch let him down right in front of goal.

He also attempted an acrobatic scissor kick that hit the crossbar just before halftime, but finally got his reward in some style, giving the hosts the lead 10 minutes after the break with a fine left-foot finish from the edge of the area.

A few minutes later, Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes made a good save to keep out Sergio Aguero’s header from point-blank range.

Yet Guardiola’s side soon equalised when Laporte headed in just after the hour following a flick on from David Silva.