Pep Guardiola has disclosed how Manchester City privately felt about the Champions League when he joined the club in 2016.
When Guardiola was brought in by the Sky Blues, fans and pundits alike felt that the goal of the appointment was for the club to win Europe’s elite competition.
While the Spaniard dominated proceedings in domestic competitions, Manchester City flattered to deceive in the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola shares how Manchester City felt about the Champions League when he was appointed
Despite being one of the best teams in the world, City seemed cursed in the competition, as exemplified by their infamous second leg quarter-final clash against Tottenham Hotspur, where Raheem Sterling’s last-gasp winner was ruled out by VAR.
Until June 2023 when City finally won the competition and in style by also lifting a historic treble.
As Manchester City prepare to face Copenhagen in the first leg of the Champions League last 16, Pep Guardiola has detailed how the club internally felt about the competition when he joined.
“I had the feeling when I arrived eight years ago, this competition was a little bit like, ‘Wow, maybe, it’s too much for us.’ Our defeats and our bad moments and our steps to grow up helped us to be in the position we are, you know?”, he said [via HaytersTV].
“Two Champions League finals and one semi-final in the last three years and now, we have the awareness. All the club is seeing, ‘Okay, we can go everywhere to try to be ourselves.’ Before, I felt, ‘Okay, let’s go. Okay, are you sure Pep [Guardiola] we are ready to do it?’ Now, I think all the organisation, the club believe we can do it.”
“And this is the best legacy we gave to the club, to the team that now Man City can compete, it’s so good.”
Pep Guardiola has provided a sense of belief in Europe within the club
Considering Manchester City had never won the Champions League when Pep Guardiola was appointed, one can understand why the goal seemed insurmountable for them within closed doors in 2016.
To add to that, playing in Europe is a different ball game to any other competition and ever so often, the fine margins of the tournament can lead to harsh outcomes for teams.
But after years of upsets, unfortunate defeats, regrets and mistakes in the Champions League, the Sky Blues took all the experience under their belt to get the job done last year.
Now, it seems like the club wholeheartedly believe that they have it in them to win the competition once again.
That is down to Pep Guardiola, who brought Manchester City as a close as possible to winning the competition in comparison to Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini before finally breaking the club’s European hoodoo.
