Guardiola: Win the Champions League? I could understand the pressure if I were coaching Real Madrid

Pep Guardiola is in his seventh season as Manchester City coach, but he still hasn’t won the Champions League. The coveted trophy has eluded him since leaving Barcelona, but according to him, only Real Madrid are under pressure to win the club’s most valuable trophy every year.

Guardiola lifted the trophy for the Champions League over his head in 2009 and 2011. Nothing since then, he has not won the most prestigious club trophy in three years with Bayern and seven years with the Citizens, and has only reached the final once.

Now he has another opportunity in front of him. Tomorrow Manchester City will face Leipzig in a rematch, the first match in Germany ended in a 1-1 draw.

With the Citizens, Guardiola has conquered the Premier League, but he has not yet achieved his goal of becoming the king of Europe.

In the press conference before the Leipzig game, he faced the question of whether his career at City would be defined by winning the Champions League.

“From the public’s point of view, yes. That doesn’t mean I agree with it, but we will be judged by this competition. In my first Champions League game for the Citizens I was asked if I had come to win the Champions League. If I was coaching Real Madrid, I would understand the pressure,” the Spanish coach replied.

Real Madrid is the absolute king of the competition with 14 trophies. It is an unwritten rule at Los Blancos that the Champions League must be won at least once every few years, the fans, the management, the media and the players themselves want it.

Guardiola didn’t enjoy much success with the Citizens in the Champions League. In his first season, the Citizens finished in the eighth round, followed by three consecutive eliminations in the quarterfinals. In the 2020/21 season, however, Guardiola took the team to the final, where they fell short to Chelsea. Last year, it was Real Madrid who put a stop to Manchester in the semi-finals.

Source: UEFA