Pep Guardiola's History in the Champions League

13.06.23 1131

On Saturday the 10th of June 2023, Manchester City won the Champions League for the first time in their history.

It was a monumental night for the football club but also a special occasion for Pep Guardiola, who picked up his third Champions League winners medal as a manager.

The victory in Istanbul means Guardiola is now level with Zinedine Zidane and Bob Paisley with 3 Champions League titles as a manager, with only Carlo Ancelotti above them with 4 to his name.

Guardiola landed his first Champions League as a manager when he guided Barcelona to the trophy in 2009. Barcelona scored 18 goals in the group, which was 6 more than the closest team, Bayern Munich.

Scoring goals was the trademark of Barcelona under Guardiola in 2008/09 and they scored 6 goals against Lyon in the round of 16 and 5 goals against Bayern Munich in the quarter-final.

Chelsea provided a tougher test in the semi-final but Barcelona were comfortably the better team in the final, beating Manchester United 2-0 to land Guardiola his first Champions League medal as a manager.

Guardiola had to wait just two years before he got his hands of the Champions League trophy for a second time. In the 2010/11 season, Guardiola guided Barcelona to the top of Group D, with only one club finishing the group stages with a superior goal difference.

Moving to the knockout stages and Barcelona were at it again in terms of goal scoring, netting 4 times against Arsenal, 6 times against Shakhtar Donetsk, 3 times against Real Madrid, and 3 times against Manchester United in the final.

Barcelona were not only successful with Guardiola but played fantastic attacking football. It is fair to say Guardiola had some of the best talent in the world at his disposal, including Carles Puyol, Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Pedro, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o, and David Villa.

However, he moulded the team to produce some of the most entertaining football in the history of the Champions League.

Having joined Bayern Munich in 2013, winning the Champions League became more difficult for Guardiola. There were no issues domestically but in his first season in Germany, Bayern Munich lost heavily to Real Madrid in the semi-final, with Guardiola coming under criticism for his tactics.

Guardiola took Bayern Munich to the semi-final of the Champions League the following season, scoring 7 goals against both Shakhtar Donetsk and Porto in the knockout stages before losing to Barcelona. It was the same again in his final season at Bayern Munich, as they were eliminated in the semi-final, this time by Atletico Madrid.

Having moved to Manchester City as manager in 2016, Guardiola found it tough in the Champions League, losing to Monaco in the round of 16. The following season they lost heavily to Liverpool in the quarter-final and the same outcome occurred in 2018/19 against Tottenham Hotspur.

Again, there were no problems domestically but Manchester City were eliminated in 2020 by Lyon in the quarter-final before reaching the final the following season against Chelsea. Guardiola received a lot of criticism for his team selection in the final and Manchester City lost 1-0.

Having been ahead against Real Madrid in the second leg of the 2021/22 semi-final against Real Madrid, Manchester City conceded late goals to lose in dramatic fashion.

However, Guardiola was finally reaching the latter stages of the Champions League and having gone to the final for a second time with Manchester City in 2022/23, he landed his third winners medal, beating Inter Milan 1-0.