CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
What is Manchester City’s Champions League record? Have they ever been Champions of Europe?
Another year and another chance for Pep Guardiola’s dominant English squad to show the world that they deserve to be considered the best.
Ahead of Tuesday evening’s mouthwatering Champions League clash between the Premier League’s Manchester City and the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich, I thought it worth a quick look back over the success in UEFA’s showpiece competition of the oil-rich bullies of the English top flight. For the elite clubs, being crowned champions of Europe is the pinnacle of the season, but knockout tournament doesn’t always go with form.
Manchester City Champions League failure
The money rolled into the City of Manchester Stadium in 2008 and almost magically it became the Etihad Stadium. More financial wizardry saw the likes of Robinho, Tevez and many others join the club and, arguably more importantly, Roberto Mancini took the reins. Success was getting closer and dreams of conquering England would soon be realised thanks to the unparalleled fortunes of the Abu Dhabi United Group.
Manuel Pellegrini replaced the Italian on the bench and more domestic silverware was collected, but the elusive European title -- without forgetting the 1970 European Cup Winners’ Cup joy -- remained a future goal. Time to bring in a managerial heavyweight to match the expensively assembled set of players. Welcome, Pep Guardiola.
Premier Leagues and domestic cups rolled in, only Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp stopping the main competition becoming a one-team procession in recent seasons, but even when tipped as favourite, becoming kings of Europe was always hit by one unexpected obstacle or another.
In 2015/16 the semi-finals had CIty fans pondering lifting the famous trophy at the San Siro final. Knockout round wins over Dynamo Kiev and PSG set up a double-header against Real Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo still firing strong for them. Two legs, and just a single goal (a Fernando OG to make it worse) saw the campaign come to a halt.
The continued strengthening of the team under Pep would see them go a step closer in 2021, reaching the final in Porto’s Estadio do Dragão. Again, it wasn’t to be their day, the dark blue of Chelsea cancelling out the sky blue hopes, a feat that Los Blancos would again do in the most unbelievable of fashions in the dying seconds of the semi-final second leg in the following season.
Graphic courtesy of our friends at SofaScore.
Time for Man City to be crowned
So to this year. Bayern certainly pose a tough test at the quarter-final stage but with Erling Haaland breaking goal-scoring records and clean sheet bonuses for fun, few would bet heavily against this being the year. If they do overcome Guardiola’s former team, it’ll be one of their previous obstacles, either Real Madrid or Chelsea, standing in the path to the Istanbul final.
I, for one, certainly believe that this is indeed the year when the City history books will be rewritten with the story they have been dreaming about for decades. And that will remove the pressure on the coach that was brought in with a clear purpose to deliver it.