Pep Guardiola won two Champions Leagues as coach of FC Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, but since then he has not stopped adding failures in Europe’s top competition. After tonight’s elimination with Manchester City against Real Madrid in the semifinals, there have been nine consecutive seasons that the title has been avoided by the Catalan coach since he left the bench at Camp Nou.
A year ago Guardiola was about to end this kind of curse after leading City to the first Champions League final in its history, but a goal from Kai Havertz gave Chelsea the title to Thomas Tuchel at the Do Dragao stadium in Porto (1- 0).
This is Guardiola’s third Champions League final as coach after wins with Barça against Manchester United in 2009 (2-0) and 2011 (3-1). That’s where Pep’s idyll at ‘orejona’ ended as in the next edition the azulgrana fell in the semifinals against Chelsea (1-0 at Stamford Bridge and 2-2 at Camp Nou) and at the end of the 2011-2012 season left he. the club of his life.
Three semifinals in a row in Bayern against the Spanish
Guardiola lasted a sabbatical year. In 2013 he signed for Bayern Munich, having inherited a team that had just won a treble at the hands of Jupp Heynckes and in his three seasons in Bavaria he fell to the semifinals of the Champions League against Spanish rivals.
In the 2013-14 campaign, Bayern’s executioner was Real Madrid (1-0 at the Bernabéu and 0-4 at the Allianz Arena with doubles from Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo). In 2014-15, Barça itself defeated Pep with a 3-0 win at Camp Nou where the Germans responded with an inadequate 3-2 in the second leg.
In the 2015-16 season, Atlético left Bayern indefinitely, after winning Madrid (1-0), thanks to double the value of Antoine Griezmann’s goal in Munich (2-1).
Mbappé, Liverpool and Pochettino, executioners
Ending his contract with Bayern, Guardiola signed for Manchester City with the big goal of taking him for the first time to become champion in Europe. So far he is still not succeeding, although he is getting closer and closer.
On his first appearance in the 2016-17 Champions League with City, he fell in the round of 16 against Monaco. Despite the win at the Etihad (5-3), the 3-1 win for Principality reigned for double the amount of goals in the opposite field. A very young Kylian Mbappé met the world in this tie, scoring a goal in the same game.
In the 2017-18 campaign, City took another step but Liverpool blocked their path by winning at Anfield (3-0) and at the Etihad through the arbitration of Mateu Lahoz which angered Pep (1-2) .
In the 2018-19 Champions League another English team, Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham, eliminated City in the quarterfinals thanks to a 1-0 win over London and a 4-3 win over the Etihad, which was also controversial. At 4-2, Fernando Llorente’s double value was decided.
The pandemic and the final against Chelsea
The 2019-20 Champions League is not typical because of the Covid-19 pandemic. UEFA moved the pending qualifiers to Lisbon and City fell in a match against Lyon to José Alvalade with a brace from Moussa Dembélé (3-1).
Last season City went further than ever before losing in the final against Chelsea (1-0) and now Guardiola has said goodbye to a Champions League semi-final for the fourth time since leaving Barça.
Source: La Verdad
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