Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola got a great start to his coaching career.
The Catalan’s first match at the helm of the national team was the Champions League qualifying match against Wisla Krakow.
His team, FC Barcelona, won 4–0.
It was August 2008 then.
Guardiola’s debut season ended with a triple championship. Barcelona won the Spanish Cup, the league and the Champions League, in the final of which they beat Manchester United 2-0.
Leo Messi completed the final numbers with a rare header goal for him.
At just 38 years old, Guardiola was crowned the youngest coach in history to win the Champions League. Two years later, the same teams met again in the final.
Barcelona’s winning numbers were then recorded 3–1.
Dry season
The final match at Wembley was played in May 2011, when it seemed inevitable that Guardiola would quickly become one of the coaches who won the Champions League three times.
It will be almost 12 years since that final.
After that, Guardiola has coached Barcelona (one year), Bayern Munich for three seasons and is now in his seventh season at the helm of Manchester City.
That third Champions League win just hasn’t come.
At the same time, Guardiola’s star status as a coach has dimmed because, for example, Bayern Munich was crowned European champion just before the Catalan’s arrival (spring 2013) and a couple of seasons after his departure (2020).
The story continues after the picture
Thomas Tuchel (second right) followed his team’s training in Munich on Monday. PDO
He has led Manchester City to the final once. It is especially remembered for how the Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel tactically humiliated Guardiola.
The German found ways to eliminate City’s attacks and celebrated with the trophy of the Champions League after the match.
– I think about that loss too much. No matter how we play, we can lose. Maybe I made the wrong decisions, but maybe now the situation is different and everything is going great, Guardiola said on Monday.
Tit for tat?
He sure would like that. The Champions League continues today with an exciting first leg of the quarter-finals as Tuchel brings his new team Bayern Munich to Manchester.
At the same time, an opportunity opens up for Guardiola to pay back the German.
– I don’t believe in the talk that I would be a great coach. There are different reasons why I make some decisions. If we win I was right and if we don’t I was wrong.
– I don’t worry about it now.
Tuchel gets to the quarter-finals from a pressure-free situation. He got the Bayern Munich badge just a couple of weeks ago.
Even the idea of the great PSG victory in the previous round Julian Nagelsmannwho was unexpectedly fired at the end of March.
– I can’t really say my own opinion. When a coach gets the boot and his successor does well, people say the decision was right. If the situation were the other way around, they would miss the former coach, Guardiola said.
– The match would have been difficult against Nagelsmann and it will certainly be that against Tuchel as well.
Cancelo’s return
From Guardiola’s point of view, Bayern’s coaching change hits a bad spot. If he had been allowed to tactic against Nagelsmann’s team, no one would have remembered the spring 2021 final.
With Tuchel, the City manager has to deal with both the enormous pressure of the club’s success and his own personal history.
– I watched the final again about a month later, and it wasn’t nearly as bad from us as I feared. We just have to forget it and try again, Guardiola consoled not only his team but himself.
– I don’t live in the past.
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Guardiola guided Joäo Cancelo during the autumn rounds. PDO
The manager made a tough decision in January because he wanted to get rid of the nagging star defender From João Cancelo. The Portuguese got a new home just from Bayern, who agreed to take him on loan until spring.
Exceptionally, there was no restriction on the loan that would prevent Cancelo from playing against his parent club.
– It’s strange, because just a moment ago we were fighting here together. But this is football. It must be nice to see him again, national team mate Ruben Dias admitted.
Back in the fall, City had a strong Lusitanian representation, which included a midfielder in addition to Cancelo and Dias Bernardo Silva.
– We formed a strong friendship during these years. Of course we have kept in touch, but when the match starts, everyone is defending their own team.
The first part of the Champions League quarter-final between Manchester City and Bayern Munich can be watched on the CMore Sport1 channel starting at 21:00.