Tuchel: Guardiola’s Kryptonite?
Familiar foes Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola meet in the Champions League quarterfinals as Manchester City look to avenge their defeat by Bayern in 2021.
Pep Guardiola really wants to win today’s Champions League quarterfinal match against Bayern Munich. Of course, one always wants to win. But today is different. Today, Manchester City face Thomas Tuchel, the coach who beat Guardiola’s side in three consecutive games when he was managing at Chelsea. The most recent was the toughest defeat of them all, the 2021 Champions League final.
Can Tuchel stop Guardiola again?
“We tried last season, two seasons ago, tried three seasons ago, every single season,” said Guardiola. “But there are teams that you face that are also good, too, and they want to win, too.”
Tuchel has proven to be one of the most difficult coaches for Guardiola to beat. Now, he must face him in a tough Champions League quarterfinal match with Bayern Munich. It will be their fourth matchup in a cup competition, with Tuchel having won two of the last three. Even still, the two coaches have great respect for one another.
“His creativity, he’s such a creative manager,” said Guardiola of Tuchel. “As a manager, he’s adapted perfectly. In Germany, it was his home country. But after that, he went to Paris and did really well. Not just winning the French league, he went to the final of the Champions League against Bayern Munich. And the way that they played was really good. And also at Chelsea, he did a good job.”
Tuchel feels the same respect and admiration for his opponent.
“Personally, I don’t draw any conclusions from previous encounters [with Guardiola],” said Tuchel. “I think that every time, Pep proves that, whether it’s at Barceloa, Munich, or now here at City, he can give his teams a unique style. And from every game, not only the ones I coach against him, but also the ones where I watch his teams play, I learn something about soccer. That’s what makes me a better coach in the end.”
Haaland the hero
City can count on their brilliant, almost non-human striker, Erling Haaland, to be a difference-maker in the knockout games. The Norweigan has scored 44 goals in all competitions for City this season, the most ever by a Premier League player in a single season. He has needed the joint-fewest games (six) to reach 10 goals in the Champions League for one club.
“With Haaland, you don’t need to watch too many videos because I think everybody knows what kind of striker he is,” said Bayern’s Matthijs De Ligt. “And he still scores goals. He’s really good at that.”
“Erling is so important to us, I cannot deny it,” said Guardiola. “The amount of goals and how influential he is...he came, of course, to help us to be here in the Champions League to try to win it. But at the same time, to help us daily, in the FA Cup and in the Premier League as well.”
Will Haaland be the hero City needs to overcome Guardiola’s Achille’s heel, that is Tuchel?
“The failure ends when I win this competition, definitely,” said Guardiola. “It’s an honor to be here against an elite club like Bayern Munich, and we’re happy to be here. We are not taking it for granted, you have to deserve it, you have to play good for two games. And we will try to do the first and that is all.”