Guardiola is getting used to falling

Not because it’s rare, a crash in a few seconds ceases to be weird Pep Guardiolaa technician who has been accustomed in recent years to his discharge from Champions League was marked by an instant torrent, a moment of madness.

Always against, yes. The most methodical coach, the most detailed of the matches, is overwhelmed by the pointless moments created by football. “This is unpredictable,” said the Spanish coach, who was absorbed because the sport he understood most, what he thought he had already deciphered, always stabbed him once.

It happened on Santiago Bernabeuwith two goals in two minutes that unleashed the euphoria of real Madrid and left the blue sky knocked down, not understanding the causes and causes of the ball, and it happened in the latest disasters in Guardiola.

In 2020, the year of the mini-tournament Portugalang city met in the quarterfinals including lyon olympics, a priori, the best possible cross. The game was 1-1 in the final minutes and at eight it was decided. Moussa Dembele he twice cracked the last passes of the clock and City went down the street.

Last year, when normal still reigned, city broke the quarter-final tie against him Tottenham Hotspur within three minutes, which Heung-min Son needed to overcome, already in the second leg, the initial goal of Raheem Sterling. The cityzens, who were classified within 15 minutes, came back, but a goal from Fernando Llorente, who Guardiola always remembers being held by his hand, eliminated the Mancunians.

It’s time to rewind up to three years Champions followed by white. In 2018, Liverpool beat City in the quarterfinals, thanks to an electric first leg in which the ‘Reds’ went 3-0 at halftime. All goals arrive within 19 minute intervals, from the first of Mohammed Salah, in 12 minutes, up to the third, of Sadio Mane, at 31, who went through an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain shoe in 20 of the game. Another cataract of goals against Guardiola.

Another followed in 2017, the first campaign of Guardiola in the city. His first Champions League tie was in the round of 16 against Monaco Radamel Falcao and a very young Kylian Mbappe and excessive favoritism in English. It was, at least, until the Colombian and the Frenchman, in eight minutes, put Monaco 1-2 in Etihad Stadium. City later came back, with a 5-3 fall in the second leg, but again the disconnection of Guardiola’s team cost him a cross.

Not all collapses come under city. In his previous stint at Bayern Munich, there were two famous celebrities. In 2015, Guardiola, in the semifinals, measured on Barcelona and the going hit him. Against trident Neymar, Suárez and Messi, the Bavarians disintegrated for 17 minutes. Messi opened the can in the 77th minute and Neymar closed it at the discount time. Guardiola he fell for the second consecutive year in the semifinals, because in 2014, last year, he suffered the worst defeat of his career.

All powerful bayern went to Munich with a bad 1-0 and, according to the words of Rummenigge, “even the trees will burn”. But the only thing that burned was the German team, within 14 cathartic minutes for the Whites. From Sergio Ramos ’first header to his counterattack bale culminated by Cristiano, which was 0-3, not even a quarter of an hour passed.

A dagger running Guardiola, that in his attempt to define football he was always betrayed by the incredible, the unpredictable and the chance that any house of cards could collapse in a single move. Heart above the head, football before blackboard.

Guardiola you will never find in tactics books the answer to why real Madrid he is back, as he never learned from the collapse that led him by the hand to the Champions League. Because it is impossible to learn from what cannot be written. “It’s football,” Gary Lineker said.