Eight years ago Pepe was sent off and Lionel Messi scored two goals, one of them brilliant, as Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Champions League. It was an apocalyptic night, the climax of that run of four clásicos in 17 days (although there was the second leg still to come) that came to define José Mourinho’s first season in Spain.
It came after Guardiola had finally snapped back at Mourinho’s constant goading, a moment his players seem to have regarded as the lancing of a boil. It was an exhausting, euphoric victory and yet one from which Guardiola has perhaps never quite recovered: eight years on, he is yet to win another away leg of a Champions League quarter-final or semi-final.
Written by Jonathan Wilson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/apr/10/pep-guardiola-away-games-champions-league-manchester-city-tottenham-overthinking under the title “Pep Guardiola last won a big European away in 2011. Is he overthinking? | Jonathan Wilson”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
