Guardiola's biggest challenge, the great scourge of Madrid fans

Barcelona"I have Madrid in my sights," said Pep Guardiola, bravely, a few days ago. The coach from Santpedor is living a strange era at Manchester City, the club that he has turned into one of the best teams in recent years. But just in the season in which he renewed his contract, Guardiola has seen how a combination of injuries, his own mistakes and successes by his rivals has caused an unprecedented losing streak. The Catalan coach had never lost so many games, and he sees his City fighting to be among the top four in the English league, far behind Liverpool, the leader. In the Champions League, the results have been so bad that with 45 minutes left in the group stage, City was eliminated. They qualified by the skin of their teeth.

As luck would have it, in the Champions League, the rival in this play-off newly created outside another team that has not done its homework In the first phase, Real Madrid. A duel that in recent years has pitted the title favourites against each other, and this year it pits two teams with flaws against each other. The favourite is the Spanish team, because City's problems are huge. To try to get things off the ground and rebuild the team, Guardiola saw how he made four signings in January: Galician Nico from Porto, Uzbek Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens, Brazilian Vitor Reyes from Palmeiras and Egyptian Omar Marmoush from Eintracht. Vitor Reis has not been included as a reinforcement for the Champions League, since he is a bet for the future. And in Nico's first game, the former Barça player was injured after just 20 minutes on the pitch in the Cup match at Leyton Orient, a club from the Third Division. City had to fight back, trailing 1-0 at half-time, and won 2-1 with a rebound goal from Khusanov and another from De Bruyne.

Nico had to help City cover for the absence of Rodri, a key player in Guardiola's system and one of the reasons for the team's crisis of results. The Ballon d'Or winner could return to the pitch at the end of this season, so he was entered into the squad for the knockout stages of the Champions League. Provided City get through them, of course. "It's a position we were weak in since Rodri's absence. I know him from the Barcelona academy and his father worked here. I'm very happy with the club's effort to bring him here for the next few years," said Guardiola about the absence of Rodri. Nico's signing, without suspecting that he would miss the first leg against Los Blancos.

The Catalan coach, in fact, took advantage of the injury to criticise the English referees. "Welcome to the Premier League and its referees. I think he immediately understood what this league and its referees are. I know it's more difficult without VAR, but there were a couple of actions... I say this because we won, otherwise I would keep quiet. I think Nico has perfectly understood what England is and it's a shame. This year, Guardiola had to face a match in December with just thirteen first-team players due to injuries. Over time he has gradually recovered most of them.

A favourable record

The match against Madrid will be the European reunion between the two teams after the tie they played in last season's quarter-finals, remembered for the frustrating dominance of the English side. Guardiola's City, who had drawn at the Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg, saw Rodrygo score the 0-1 in Manchester. De Bruyne equalised in a match in which City had 69% of the possession and 30 shots on goal. Ancelotti's Madrid limited themselves to defending, trying to get to penalties: they succeeded and here Lunin qualified the Madrid team for the semi-finals.

Guardiola has faced the Whites 25 times as a coach, with Barça, Bayern and City. He has won 13 times, there have been 6 draws and 6 Whites victories. Most of his victories came when he was at Barça, when he won 9 of the 15 matches played, with just two defeats and four draws. With Bayern, on the other hand, he lost both games against the Whites, while with City he has already played eight matches, with four wins, two draws and two defeats. However, the Whites have eliminated them twice, with the famous comeback in 2022 at the Santiago Bernabéu when City seemed to have qualified and the penalties in 2024. In 2023, on the other hand, it was City who qualified with a great 4-0 win at home. In 2020, Guardiola had also eliminated the Whites in the round of 16. Although outside of Barça the balance has been equalized, the memory of his time at the Camp Nou as a coach and player has made him the great scourge of Madrid fans, who have always feared him.

This year's challenge seems to be the greatest. City have won just three of eight Champions League games (against Sparta Prague, Slovan Bratislava and Club Brugge), have already been eliminated from the League Cup and have suffered seven Premier League defeats, the last a 5-1 defeat at Arsenal. In total, City have lost 11 competitive games, compared to just five in the entire previous season.