Twelve painful years have passed since Pep Guardiola last won the Champions League.
But as one of the game’s defining head coaches prepares for a fifth final in the club competition that matters most, Manchester City are also looking to become the second English team to complete the treble – after neighbours United in 1999.
The stakes could barely be higher against an unfancied Inter Milan. But how will the heavy favourites tag weigh on City and their head coach?
Guardiola has long recognised that his time at City will not be defined by domestic success but delivering their first Champions League. “I will be judged, if we don't win it … I will be a failure here. I know that,” he said in 2020. Three seasons on that is a sentiment that feels even stronger.
A narrative of Guardiola’s overthinking and tinkering in key moments has snowballed – he wants it too much – but equally there has been bad luck and the simple reality that his sides have faced an opponent that performed to a higher level.
Year-by-year, blow-by-blow, here is a breakdown of where it has gone wrong for the Catalan since that exceptional Barcelona team destroyed Manchester United at Wembley in May 2011.
Barcelona
2011-12 – semi-finals
Looking to retain the title, it was plain-sailing all the way to the last four. Then Chelsea, under caretaker Roberto di Matteo, dug in deep to win the first leg 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta made it 2-1 to Barca at Camp Nou until Ramires gave Chelsea an away-goal lead by scoring in first-half added time and Fernando Torres forced Gary Neville to make some unusual noises on commentary with his added time breakaway goal.
Bayern Munich
2013-14 – semi-finals
Refreshed from a year off playing chess with Garry Kasparov in New York, Guardiola won four trophies in his first campaign at Bayern – but the Champions League was not among them. Having coasted through in a group featuring City, the German giants beat Arsenal and Manchester United on the way to the last four. But familiar foes Real Madrid were on supreme form as they won the opening meeting at the Bernabeu 1-0 before crushing Bayern 4-0 in Bavaria. But Guardiola took the blame, having made a late decision to use a 4-2-3-1 instead of a 4-3-3 before at the last minute changing his mind again and using a 4-2-4 that ended up being ripped apart. "I got it wrong, man,” he said afterwards. “I got it totally wrong. It's a monumental f*** up. A total mess. The biggest f*** up of my life as a coach.”
2014-15 – semi-finals
The pattern continues. After topping a group in which City were second, Bayern scored seven across two legs against Shakhtar Donetsk and Porto to tee up a meeting with Barca. In the first leg at Camp Nou, Bayern were without Robben and Franck Ribery and therefore set out to frustrate and man mark their hosts. “Pep Guardiola’s gone and shocked us all,” Neville said on commentary. Yet they did a half-decent job for 77 minutes before Lionel Messi struck twice in three minutes and Neymar scored a third in added time while the Bavarians were unable to produce a single attempt on target. Humbled but unwilling to accept defeat, Bayern scored three in the second leg only for Neymar to find the net twice more for the eventual champions.
2015-16 – semi-finals
A defeat defined by Thomas Muller’s penalty miss. Saul Niguez gave Atletico Madrid a 1-0 lead in the first leg in Spain but Xabi Alonso cancelled that out half an hour into the second with a deflected free kick. Then Muller had a chance to put his team in front from 12 yards, after Javi Martinez was felled, only to be denied by Jan Oblak. Nine minutes into the second half, the sucker punch arrived as Antoine Griezmann put Atletico 2-1 up on aggregate. Robert Lewandowski made it 2-2 but Diego Simeone’s team advanced on away goals. “Titles are just numbers, statistics,” Guardiola said. “I wanted to reach the Champions League final here and I didn’t achieve it but it doesn’t change my opinion about the way I have performed.” City, meanwhile, bowed out in the other semi against Real.
Manchester City
2016-17 - round of 16
Still in the process of implementing his vision, Guardiola led City into the knockout stages despite a 4-0 thrashing away to Barcelona in the group stages. They scored six across two legs in the last 16 tie with Monaco – including five in the first leg at home – only to crash out on away goals to a team featuring Kylian Mbappe, Fabinho and future City players Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva. "We will improve but this competition is so demanding," Guardiola said. "Sometimes we have to be special and be lucky. We were not."
2017-18 - quarter-finals
It was progress on a year previous but City were unable to handle an aggressive Liverpool in the first game at Anfield as Jurgen Klopp’s team scored three without reply. The reverse fixture saw City put up a fight as Gabriel Jesus scored but Guardiola ended up being shown a red card for protesting a Leroy Sane goal that was incorrectly ruled out. “He’s a referee who likes to feel different, he’s special,” Guardiola said of Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz afterwards. “When everybody sees things he is going to see the opposite. It’s too much to send off because I didn’t say any wrong word.” Regardless, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino scored to send Liverpool through 5-1 on aggregate.
2018-19 - quarter-finals
If Guardiola could blame the officials for halting their fightback against Liverpool, the 2019 defeat to Tottenham was a case of City’s head coach allowing his tinkering to sabotage their chances. While the dramatic second leg, ending in a 4-3 win for City that again saw them bow out on away goals, is what lives long in the memory a feeling remains that the damage was done in north London as Guardiola used Fabian Delph at full back, started Kevin De Bruyne on the bench and used Ilkay Gundogan in a defensive role … and Spurs decisively won 1-0. Raheem Sterling did see an added time goal ruled out in that remarkable second leg, leaving Guardiola to declare: "It's tough, it's cruel but we have to accept it.” If only the team was set up differently for the opening game.
2019-20 - quarter-finals
Things were looking good before the pandemic struck as Real Madrid were overcome in the round of 16 but City, who would finish second in the Premier League to Liverpool, looked dazed in a one-off last-eight tie against Lyon as the French side – relative minnows in a financial sense – found plenty of joy on the counterattack against a back three. David Silva, Bernardo, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez were among the substitutes, leading to Guardiola’s selection being criticised again. "We tried to cover our weak points in comparison with their strong points," he said. "Except in the first 20 minutes, we struggled to find our spaces to attack them."
2020-21 - final
With the coronavirus keeping the turnstiles closed for almost the entire season, City waltzed into the final and were heavy favourites to beat Chelsea in Porto. But Guardiola decided to play without a defensive midfielder – leaving Rodri and Fernandinho on the bench – as Kai Havertz’s first half goal earned the West London club a second European Cup. City did bemoan the early loss of De Bruyne through a nasty facial injury inflicted by Antonio Rudiger but the Premier League champions did not do enough.
2021-22 - semi-finals
Another semi-final, another meeting with Real Madrid and the late collapse to beat all late collapses. The first leg, in Manchester, was a barnstormer that City edged 4-3 and if it was not for the excellence of Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema they would have been out of sight heading to Spain for the second game. Yet City retained a semblance of control at the Bernabeu before Riyad Mahrez looked to have scored the decisive goal. In the 90th minute, City led 5-3 and, again, it would have been more if Jack Grealish had not been twice denied. But Rodrygo scored two in as many minutes, brought the game to extra time and Karim Benzema scored from the penalty spot to complete the turnaround and leave City heartbroken all over again. “Football is unpredictable and you have to accept it,” Guardiola said.
