As since 2011, the Mancunian coach, whose team was one of the favorites in the competition, will not lift the cup with big ears this season.
«When we were better in the match, we qualified for the final. We had the game under control and they started to play high and managed to score. I have the experience of knowing that we weren’t in the final yet, but we were close. They are capable of writing history, as I have already said.This Wednesday evening, the disappointment was immense on the side of Pep Guardiola. While Manchester City had outrageously dominated – at least in play – the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals against Real Madrid (4-3) and despite a one-goal advantage at the end of regulation time during the second leg, the Citizens were eliminated from the competition, beaten by a Real Madrid with a steely mind, able to equalize in the space of two minutes before snatching their ticket for the C1 final in extra time . A new disappointment for the Spanish coach who has not lifted the big-eared cup since 2011 when he led the “grand» FC Barcelona led by Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi.
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Very large clubs run…
Over the last eleven years, Pep Guardiola’s results in the Champions League are not bad in themselves. They nevertheless remain clearly insufficient given his status on the one hand – he is considered one of the greatest technicians of the 21st century.e century – and on the other hand of the mastodons he led. Because after leaving FC Barcelona in the summer of 2012, with a list filled to the brim, the Spaniard took the reins of FC Bayern Munich from July 2013; FC Bayern Munich, which had just had one of the best seasons in its history with a historic league-national cup-Champions League treble. Three years later, the ex-midfielder then settled in England, in Manchester more precisely, to take charge of the Citizens; Citizens then in full development and who already had almost unlimited resources to improve their workforce.
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…but results below expectations in C1
However, whether with the Bavarian club or with the British team, Pep Guardiola never repeated in the Champions League the performances that had been his when he officiated in Catalonia. As if he were confronted, outside his native lands, with a mysterious glass ceiling that he has been unable, year after year, to break. With FC Bayern Munich, his career in the most beautiful of European cups remains more than honorable since he reached the last four in each of his seasons (2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016). But no title and no final despite an extremely talented and experienced workforce. Since he led Manchester City, the Citizens have risen through the ranks, establishing themselves for several years among the great favorites of the competition: round of 16 in 2016-2017, quarter-finals in 2017-2018, in 2018-2019 and in 2019-2020, then final in 2020-2021. Many also thought that last season’s edition was the right one for the Spanish technician, that he would find the joy of lifting the cup with the big ears. Unfortunately for him, his team came up against the solidity and efficiency of Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea.
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Offensive principles of play…
What is all the more frustrating for Pep Guardiola is that both in Germany and in England, his teams have dominated their domestic competitions. In three seasons across the Rhine, the former Johan Cruyff player has won the Bundesliga each time, in addition to having lifted the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) twice. Across the Channel, the Citizens have greatly enriched their record since 2016 with three Premier League – and perhaps a fourth this season – an FA Cup and four League Cup. To all his trophies, we must of course add the polished game offered by his formations. Because the native of Santpedor has brought up to date the “football total» and deeply influenced the footballing world by his desire to master the game, to attack in numbers, but also by his tactical audacity, he who does not hesitate to invent (or reinvent) concepts such as «fake number nine“- understand playing without professional striker – or “the inner side– that is to say to place his right or left back in the center in the construction of the game when the majority of the teams use these players to split.
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…to adapt more to win?
It is this game that makes its strength, its originality… but which is also at the origin of its limits on the biggest European stage since 2011. Indeed, we still had a glimpse of it this Wednesday, its teams do not know how to defend correctly when they are deprived, even temporarily, of the ball and that they no longer have the physical or tactical resources to exercise intense and high pressure when the ball is lost. As if they are so used to being in possession of the puff that they become unable to sublimate defensively in crucial moments. This is what Arsène Wenger said on BeIN Sports this Wednesday evening:Look at 1-1, when Grealish is against Carvajal he gets passed easily, too easily. He must absolutely fight to stop this center! You don’t want the ball in the box, anything can happen when everyone is moving forward. This is where City failed to secure the game, in their way of defending on the flanksexplained the ex-manager of Arsenal. Because they conceded chances. Even when you look at Benzema’s handover (on the equalizing goal, editor’s note), they didn’t really attack the ball. They made big mistakes.At the end of the contract next year, Pep Guardiola should have one last chance to bring back a first Champions League to Manchester City. Considered dogmatic on the strategic level, will he agree to adapt his principles to win again the most beautiful European trophy?