Former England striker, Gary Lineker has attempted an explanation for Raheem Sterling’s shocking miss in Saturday’s UEFA Champions League quarter final between Manchester City and Olympic Lyonnaise. Sterling inexplicably missed an open goal from close range off a Gabriel Jesus cross in the 85th minute of the contest with his sode trailing 1-2.
Lyon raced down the other end seconds later to score the back-breaking third and Lineker noted afterwards that Sterling’s technique at the opportune moment was flawed.
“He looked like he was in the perfect position to hit it, but he’s not going to sleep very well tonight, Raheem Sterling,” Lineker said.
“I tell you why he’s missed it: because he’s tried to hit it too hard.
“When you’re in that position where you know you’ve got an open goal, the only way you can miss it is putting your foot through it, and if there is a slight bobble there is a chance it’ll go over the bar.
“It’s almost like he’s trying to hit it with a little bit of force and there’s obviously been a little bit of lift of the ball, a little bobble. But if you take the weight off it, you can’t miss.”
City manager, Pep Guardiola, however, refused to put the blame for City’s ouster on Sterling. The Spaniard noted, post-match that City shouldn’t have conceded the goals they did.
“I didn’t see the players, we’re going to talk now in the hotel. So after the locker room, the players were, of course sad. Now we’re going to do it in the hotel but it’s part of the game,” he said.
“The football in this competition, we know we can do many things but in the boxes you have to be serious. Not concede the goals we concede, especially the second one.
“I think the statistics showed that we created more than the other teams in terms of everything but it was not enough.”
Lyon will now face Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals as City try to accept a third consecutive quarter-final exit in the competition. In the other semi-final, Paris-Saint Germain will tackle RB Leipzig , after the Ligue 1 giants banished their own quarter-final demons against Atalanta .
