London (AFP)

Launched towards a third English league title in five years with Manchester City, Pep Guardiola finds a Champions League where his repeated failures are the only shadow to his reputation as a successful coach, Wednesday in the round of 16 first leg against Mönchengladbach ( 9:00 p.m.).

Relocated to Budapest due to restrictions on entry to Germany to combat the spread of the new Covid-19 variants, this shock almost looks like an appetizer for the English ogre.

Its 10-point lead in the Premier League, its almost perfect group stage with 16 points out of 18, 13 goals scored and only one conceded, tend to make City a favorite in the competition.

A posture that has not often smiled on Pep Guardiola who, since two trophies won with Barcelona (2009, 2011), has regularly experienced, with Bayern Munich or City, spectacular "failures", with controversial strategic choices, such as during the elimination in the quarterfinals against Lyon last year (3-1).

The Catalan is not the type to live in regrets.

"We had played better than Lyon. We had lost, but we had played better. We will try to play even better this time and win," he said at a press conference.

"It is not something that is forgotten, but it is not something that gives us additional motivation," assured Ilkay Gündogan to put it into perspective as well.

- Forced rotation -

The strength released this year by his team, which remains on 18 consecutive victories in all competitions, suggests that he may have found the right formula and that he has no reason to change it.

Still competing in four competitions and faced with a hellish schedule, the Catalan could reserve surprises in his team composition, against Germans who have not reached this stage of the competition since their glorious epics of the late 1970s .

"With now a game every three days and travel, I will have to keep the team running. It's impossible to keep up with this rhythm," admitted Guardiola after the victory at Arsenal (1-0) on Sunday .

But its workforce seems richer and more consistent than in previous years, with second, or even third choices, in almost every position, which broadens its range of options.

Sorrowful spirits will say that the City of 2020-2021 is less brilliant than the champion team of England in 2018 and 2019, like their victory against the Gunners where the last quarter of an hour of the match was managed rather than to seek to deliver the fatal blow to the adversary.

- "Spring not yet here" -

This "pragmatism" is reflected in particular in more victories by a goal difference - 6 in the league in 25 days, as much as throughout last season - and less success by three goals difference (4 against 14).

But he could also be the missing element that would allow City of Guardiola to finally cross the bar of the quarter-finals on which he has come up stubbornly in recent years.

Guardiola knows, however, how narrow the path to success is and that, sometimes, neither history nor his choices weigh very heavily in the face of sporting hazards.

"I'm not a fan of those who say that past experiences help you. Football has plenty of examples of teams that have won many Champions Leagues and lose everything in 20 minutes," he said. Tuesday.

"Obviously we are proud of what we have done so far, but we are only in February. Spring is not yet here" and it is the season when the titles are won, he also had recalled a few days ago.

He also knows that the great series of the Citizens will end one day.

"This is the time when I will wait for a reaction from my team," he warned.

© 2021 AFP