Pep Guardiola’s 3rd Champions League in his coaching career was won on Saturday evening. With the defeat of Internazionale, the Spaniard’s curse in the most important European club tournament finally came to an end.
End of the long wait: Guardiola can open the hunt for Ancelotti
Guardiola had a flashy start to his coaching career, winning the Champions League with Barcelona in his debut year (2008/09). In the final, Pep’s team defeated Manchester United and that happened again two years later. Guardiola had the world at his feet and after the move to Bayern Munich, a third Champions League final victory seemed to be only a matter of time for the coach.
However, things turned out differently. Guardiola let Bayern play unparalleled football, but three years in a row it always went wrong in the semi-finals. The Spaniard then went to Manchester City, where he failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals in his first four seasons. In the 2020/21 football year, Guardiola reached the final. Chelsea, however, was too strong 1-0.
Last year, City stranded in the semi-finals after a memorable diptych with Real Madrid, but now Guardiola can finally call himself the coach of the best team in Europe again. He is the third coach to win the Champions League/European Cup 1 at least three times, after Zinedine Zidane, Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti. The latter won the trophy four times and is the record holder.
Guardiola’s curse
| Year | Club | Round |
| 2011/2012 | Barcelona | Semi finals |
| 2012/2013 | – | – |
| 2013/2014 | Bayern Munich | Semi finals |
| 2014/2015 | Bayern Munich | Semi finals |
| 2015/2016 | Bayern Munich | Semi finals |
| 2016/2017 | Manchester City | Eighth final |
| 2017/2018 | Manchester City | Quarter final |
| 2018/2019 | Manchester City | Quarter final |
| 2019/2020 | Manchester City | Quarter final |
| 2020/2021 | Manchester City | Final |
| 2021/2022 | Manchester City | Semi finals |
| 2022/2023 | Manchester City | Won |
Haaland calls Van Dijk the most difficult opponent: “He is so good”
In the run-up to the Champions League final, Erling Haaland revealed which defender he has had the most difficult time against this season: Virgil van Dijk. The Norwegian goal-getter praised Liverpool’s defense chief.
Van Dijk has regularly been criticized for his game in recent months, now that Liverpool has had a difficult year. The team of manager Jürgen Klopp looked defensively vulnerable, but was twice too strong for the champion of England in the four head-to-head confrontations with Manchester City this season.
Haaland only scored in December last year’s League Cup game ( 3-1 ) and had a difficult afternoon at Anfield in October, when Liverpool were 1-0 too strong in the Premier League. “I remember how hard we had it. I’ve always said it, Van Dijk is so good,” the 22-year-old striker told BT Sport.
And that while Haaland is used to something because of the training sessions at Manchester City. “I face Rúben Dias, Akanji and Aké every day, I don’t have an easy time in training. But Van Dijk is such a good player,” the Norwegian said in conversation with Rio Ferdinand. “He’s smart, fast, and by air it’s also unreal how good he is.”
