This may well be the best opportunity yet for Manchester City in their pursuit of a first ever Champions League trophy, particularly with the other side of the draw featuring Milan teams with very minimal experience at this stage. One person who has lived and breathed the jubilation, and agony, of this competition is the man who will attempt to guide the Cityzens to the final, starting this evening. Therefore, we are taking a look at Pep Guardiola’s Champions League semi-final record down the years.
Real Madrid, again. Manchester City will have to try and topple the European champions in the second successive semi-final meeting between the two. Although the Premier League‘s serial winners are favoured to reach the final in Istanbul, Los Blancos just clinched the Copa Del Rey to lift every single possible trophy in the space of 475 days, breaking a new record in the process.
Last season’s 14th European triumph for Madrid was the culmination of a truly staggering campaign, that saw them register three separate comebacks in the knockout stages, ending with the most improbable 6-5 aggregate win in the last four against tonight’s opponents, courtesy of an injury-time brace from Rodrygo.
It condemned Pep Guardiola to another year without lifting club football’s most prestigious prize. The Spaniard’s complicated relationship with the Champions League since leaving Barcelona has perhaps been the only blemish on an otherwise overwhelmingly successful career as a manager.
Pep Guardiola’s Champions League Semi-Final Record
- Semi-Finals Managed: 9
- ✅ Won: 3
- ❌ Lost: 6
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Although he is the only man to ever reach nine semi-finals in this competition, only twice has Pep Guardiola lifted the Champions League, both with his native Barcelona.
But the question of whether he will lift another feels more like a ‘when’ rather than an ‘if’.
The only other time he has managed to secure safe passage to the final was in 2021 after comfortably dispatching of PSG in the last four. An all-English final would await them, where a Thomas Tuchel-led Chelsea would claim the unlikeliest of wins against heavy favourites City.
That particular year felt like a dagger to the heart for Guardiola, and undoubtedly an immense opportunity missed to silence the doubters.
Perhaps the most glaring defeat among Guardiola’s semi-final CV came in the 2015/16 season, where Bayern Munich bowed out in the last four for the third consecutive season, after falling to Atletico Madrid on away goals.
Guardiola was in charge for all three of those losses, his most semi-final appearances as manager for a given club, but as he gears up for his second as City boss, it is hard to ignore the very real possibly of a first ever club treble.
The enigmatic 52-year-old showed little sign of pressure ahead of this evening’s first leg in the Spanish capital, telling the press that Man City will “one day” win the Champions League.
He said: “We are not here for revenge. It’s just another opportunity.
“One day we will reach the final and win it.”
If you say so, Pep.
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