Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City was eliminated this Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the 2023-2024 Champions League, in a penalty shootout, at the hands of Real Madrid, in another demonstration of its great weak point in the continental competition since it left Spain are the Spanish teams, with FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid also as executioners, and with up to four finals denied by them.
The Catalan coach left the FC Barcelona bench in June 2012 with 14 titles under his arm – 3 Spanish Leagues, 3 Spanish Super Cups, 2 Champions Leagues, 2 Club World Cups, 2 European Super Cups and 2 Copas del Rey – -. The demand and tension of those four years ‘forced’ him to take a sabbatical, until he signed as Bayern coach before the start of the 2013-2014 season in his first adventure outside of Spain.
Guardiola and his team solidly dominated the Bundesliga in his three seasons in Germany, although his misfortune with the Champions League began then, after winning it for the last time in 2011 with Barça. The Bavarian team advanced steadily in the Champions League qualifiers 13-14, until they met Real Madrid in the semifinals.
The white team, coached by Carlo Ancelotti, crushed Bayern led by the Catalan, with the 1-0 in the first leg as a prelude to the resounding 0-4 in the second leg played at an Allianz in which they had never won before – they needed eleven visits to celebrate a victory in Bavarian territory– and with an excellent Cristiano Ronaldo in one of his best seasons in the Champions League.
And the fact is that the time in Bavaria was not at all gratifying at the European level, because against Real Madrid a negative series against Spanish football began. In 14-15, also in the ‘semi’, he reunited with FC Barcelona in a duel of mixed feelings. Although his return to the Camp Nou was full of sadness because of the final 3-0, with Messi and Neymar as protagonists, which the Catalan team handed down to him.
Those coached then by Luis Enrique Martínez, who would end up lifting the ‘Orejona’ – the last one won by Barça – in the final in Berlin, did not suffer in a return in which the 3-2 victory of Guardiola’s team was In nothing. The continental depression against LaLiga teams did not stop there, now with another main actor: Atlético de Madrid.
Consecutively, in 15-16, ‘Cholo’ Simeone’s men, who had just lost the 2014 final, took the third straight final away from Guardiola and his Bayern. The red and whites made Saúl Ñíguez’s Maradonian goal from the first leg at the Vicente Calderón count on their return visit to Munich. There, supported by a goal from Griezmann, which equaled Xabi Alonso’s initial goal, and the double value of goals away from home, they resisted the siege of Bayern, who were again left without a prize despite winning 2-1 with a Robert Lewandowski.
HE IMPROVES THE STATISTICS WITH THE CITY, BUT THEY RUN AGAINST REAL MADRID
That was the last service of the Santpedor player with the Bavarian team, since in July 2016 he signed for Manchester City to lead a project with the Champions League as its main objective. And it was with the ‘citizen’ team where he was able to celebrate his first success against a Spanish club, when in 19-20, the Champions League of the pandemic, he got rid of Zinédine Zidane’s Real Madrid in the round of 16 by a double 2- 1, relying on the rule of double value of goals, already repealed.
Two years later, in 21-22, Manchester City crossed the path of Atlético de Madrid in the quarterfinals. The English were very favorites and ended up winning the tie, although with a 1-0 in the first leg at the Etihad and a more difficult 0-0 in the second leg at the Metropolitano. Guardiola received a lot of criticism for ending up wasting time in that duel and defending the minimum income, in a style fight with ‘Cholo’ Simeone.
That was heads, because in that same season and in the semifinals, City once again faced Real Madrid for a place in the final, and the coin came out tails. The ‘citizen’ team was much superior in the first leg in Manchester to the whites (4-3), but it left them alive, and the magic of the Bernabéu and the stage fright of the English helped Ancelotti’s men have faith and come back ( 3-1), on the way to the ‘Fourteenth’.
Guardiola’s revenge was served cold and hard for Real Madrid the following season. On this occasion, the Madridistas played a tie that was tied (1-1) away from their home field and received a resounding defeat (0-4) in one of their worst nights in their history in the Champions League, leaving the team very shaken.
Although the series, for now, of confrontations between City and Real Madrid had a third chapter reserved for this season. Like last year, Ancelotti’s men went to Manchester alive after the 3-3 draw in the first leg, and played a very different game from the 22-23 match, with the aim of avoiding another blush.
And it turned out well for them, scoring their only big chance of the game at the beginning and holding on with excellent defense almost until the end. City forced extra time, where neither of them could move the scoreboard, deciding the quarterfinal match in a positive penalty shootout for Real Madrid.
In this way, the 14-time European champion equals (2-2) the balance of duels with Guardiola’s City in the Champions League and advances with confidence to the semifinals, digging into the Catalan’s wound with Spanish football in Europe.