Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have a rating to settle at dwelling in Tuesday’s quarterfinal first leg of the Champions League towards Bayern Munich and their newly appointed gaffer Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel emerged victorious as Chelsea supervisor in City’s first, and to date solely, run to the Champions League last in 2021.
That was additionally the closest Guardiola has are available 10 tries throughout spells at Barcelona, Bayern and City to land his third European Cup as a coach.
Chelsea’s 1-0 win in entrance of largely empty Estadio do Dragao in Porto as a consequence of coronavirus restrictions two years in the past was a case of the apprentice outshining the grasp.
As a younger coach, Tuchel studied and admired Guardiola’s dominant Barcelona aspect that gained 14 trophies in 4 years from 2008 to 2012, together with two Champions League titles.
Their paths then crossed throughout Guardiola’s three years in cost at Bayern, whereas Tuchel was coach of Mainz after which Borussia Dortmund.
Two soccer obsessives, the pair even talked lengthy into the night time at a Munich bar in 2014, utilizing glasses and salt and pepper shakers to imitate formations.
“I was such a huge admirer of Pep when he was a player, and then when he became a coach, it was like learning on the job for me,” mentioned Tuchel earlier than the 2021 Champions League last.
“I was an academy coach and then in the Bundesliga with Mainz, but I don’t think I missed a game (of Guardiola’s Barcelona) because there was so much to learn.”
The respect is mutual. Guardiola described Tuchel final season as “one of the few managers I learned from to develop (into) a better manager myself.”
Champions League pedigree
Guardiola has tended to have the higher hand in clashes between the 2.
Three Chelsea wins in six weeks in direction of the top of the 2020/21 season are Tuchel’s solely victories in 10 conferences between the 2 to Guardiola’s six.
But he gained a very powerful one, and his Champions League pedigree performed a big half in Bayern’s swoop to safe his providers and sack Julian Nagelsmann in a shock transfer final month.
Tuchel additionally took Paris Saint-Germain to their maiden last in Europe’s premier membership competitors in 2020 and took eventual winners Real Madrid to extra-time within the quarterfinals final 12 months regardless of Chelsea being thrust into disaster by sanctions imposed on then-owner Roman Abramovich.
The 49-year-old now has the problem of succeeding the place Guardiola failed in main Bayern again to Champions League glory.
But the burden of expectation falls way more closely on the City boss.
In his seventh season in Manchester, Guardiola are within the working for his fifth Premier League title.
Yet the failure to recover from the road in Europe stays a blot on his copybook.
“It doesn’t mean I agree with that, but absolutely we will be judged by this competition,” mentioned Guardiola on the significance of profitable the Champions League to his legacy on the Etihad.
The presence of Erling Haaland provides much more strain on Guardiola to get the job performed this 12 months lastly.
On Saturday, the Norwegian scored twice on his return from harm in a 4-1 win at Southampton, taking his tally for the season to 44.
Those numbers noticed Guardiola draw comparisons between his star striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi.
But it was to make the distinction when the suitable margins depend most within the latter phases of the Champions League that compelled City to struggle off competitors from round Europe to land Haaland.
The 22-year-old has scored 33 objectives in 25 Champions League appearances, together with 5 in a 7-0 rout of RB Leipzig within the final 16.
Benfica host Inter
In one other Champions League quarterfinals tie, Inter Milan and Benfica will meet, having to rebound from respective current setbacks.
Inter haven’t gained in over a month, whereas Benfica is coming off a tricky loss to their largest rival.
The first leg will probably be on Tuesday in Lisbon on the Stadium of Light, the place on Friday, Benfica misplaced 2-1 to rival Porto within the Portuguese league to dent their nearly good season.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
