Guardiola and the Champions League, so Pep built his victories – Corriere.it

Now you will no longer be able to ask me why I don’t win the Champions League, Pep grins in the Ataturk press room after having stroked, kissed and raised the Cup of Desires to the sky, the obsession transformed into liberation. Guardiola is the oldest, but only now does he feel defined, accomplished, despite 35 trophies and two hat-tricks, more than any other manager in history. And he claims everything he managed to do with the blue side of Manchester:
Remember we have won five Premiers in six years
, he says proudly. And he is right about this because the championship, especially the English one, the most difficult in the world, to measure the strength of a teamits place in the world. But the Champions League, only the Champions League, which makes certain nights magical and certain adventures prestigious. Pep’s detractors argued that he had won thanks to Messi, indeed only thanks to Messi, forgetting his obsessive work and vision of him.

StIt is fellow coaches who say that Guardiola is the best, until now immune to exemption, never equal to itself. In this bizarre season, very long and full of traps, broken in two by the unfortunate World Cup in Qatar, he gave his all, revolutionizing the architecture of his City. Long gone are the days of the tiki-taka. Three-way defence, Cancelo loaned to Bayern Munich and Stones on Rodri’s line, the sniper of the final, the real innovation, with Gundogan free to range and help the offensive action enhanced by De Bruyne and made concrete by Haaland, a true centre-forward. A team always in control, balanced, technical, authoritative, harmonious.

All this was not seen in the Champions League final. The Citizens deserved the Cup for beating Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals and Real Madrid in the semi-finals, but they were lucky against Inter. The new Guardiola, more fatalistic and less analytical, says that perhaps it was written in the stars that we would win and after praising his rivals he admitted that if we had conceded goals in the final minutes, who knows how extra time would have gonethe. Ederson saved us. And Lukaku pardoned them.

But the new Guardiola knows how to win even by playing badly.
Two years ago he lost the same final against Chelsea
, leaving Rodri out by surprise. This time Rodri the man of destiny. Guardiolismo no longer exists when referring to the days of Barcelona, ​​but a concept that is expanding. Every year a revolution, in search of an idea, a principle, a solution. It is precisely because the final in the past has been a wound that Pep gives advice to the defeated: I know how it feels after losing a game like this. But Inter shouldn’t be discouraged: vice-champion of Europe and playing at this level he will be able to have a new opportunity.

Manchester City is also looking for a new opportunity. Sheikh Mansour in the locker room was already thinking about the next Champions League final, which will be played in London, almost at home. The Catalan on ice brakes: I’m good, but not good enough to win it every year. Don’t trust me because I will try. And now that the obsession has become a sweet release, maybe it can get easier: I don’t want to coach a team that disappears after it wins. The millionaire City will not disappear even if, as is probable, they will lose important players, starting with Captain Gundogan who should go to Barcelona, ​​but Bernardo Silva and Mahrez are also about to move on. The market, in these parts, is not a problem. If anything, a solution.