Following Manchester City's upset loss against Lyon in the Champions League quarterfinal on Saturday, star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne met with reporters. It was a mixed bag of emotions that the Belgian international had in his interview, but he began with dejection.
"Different year, same stuff," De Bruyne, who scored his team's lone goal, told the media on how this loss was particularly heartbreaking. "Think first half wasn't good enough. I think we know that. We started slow, we had not many options. But I think second half we played really well. We come back 1-1, we had a couple of chances and then, obviously, the 2-1 and 3-1 ends the game. It's a shame to go out that way."
De Bruyne didn't place any blame on VAR, which was used to not only determine that Lyon's second goal wasn't offside, but also that Aymeric Laporte was not fouled when he stumbled, which is what led to Moussa Dembele's first goal.
Manchester City has now been eliminated in the Champions League quarterfinals for three straight seasons. While it's more of the same, at least this time it wasn't a fellow Premier League side that knocked them out -- Liverpool eliminated City in 2018, Tottenham eliminated them in 2019. Since Guardiola took over the team in 2016, the quarterfinals are as far as this talented and well-financed club has gotten.
