There he stood now and looked at the lawn.

Her forehead creased slightly, her eyes lowered to the floor, her arms crossed in front of her body.

Pep Guardiola thought about it and tried to process what he had just experienced.

It was the final brain teaser of the night for the Manchester City manager.

He had failed because of the one that he had previously had to solve in the final for the Champions League title.

Once again.

ManCity lost 1-0 to English rivals Chelsea FC in Porto.

And Guardiola was mainly to blame.

Maybe he knew.

But he didn't want to admit it.

At least not in public.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

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    Guardiola is a great thinker of football. Hardly any trainer has so many ideas, so much knowledge. This is his great strength, which makes him one of the most admired of his craft. But it is also the great weakness of the Josep Guardiola Sala. Because a simple, successful tactic is not enough for him. Sometimes it has to be something special. The ultimate move that will checkmate your opponent. It is usually not needed in everyday games. Manchester City were by far champions in the English Premier League. But in the big final of the premier class Guardiola obviously couldn't help it.

    And so, in the days before the final, he worked out a plan that he had never given his players to take with them.

    The coach did without defensive midfielders Fernandinho and Rodri.

    Above all, the Spaniard is considered to be the heart of the team.

    He played 53 games this season and showed some brilliant performances.

    In front of the defense, he not only ensured order with his physical force.

    With his football class, he did not attract any negative attention in the ensemble of fine feet.

    In short: if you need a foundation for success, you should have one like Rodri.

    Guardiola transfers Gündogan

    But as in the semi-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, Rodri did not play a minute. At that time Guardiola put Fernandinho on his position and justified it succinctly by saying that he wanted to give the Brazilian a present on his birthday. Everything went well. Fernandinho, although at the time almost 36 years old, played a good game, Manchester won 2-0 and reached the final. Now nobody celebrated their special day on matchday - and Guardiola initially renounced both. Instead, the German international Ilkay Gündogan should occupy the space in front of the defense.

    This is not a new experience for Gündogan, but this season he shone in a more offensive position on the half-left side and was more dangerous than ever in his career. Olexandr Zinchenko, who is actually left full-back, should support him. A striker, Raheem Sterling, got the free place in the starting line-up by renouncing Rodri or Fernandinho. Guardiola messed up the statics of his well-rehearsed and successful structure. The first half was terrible, but it didn't get much better in the second. Only Riyad Mahrez shot at the goal of Chelsea when his attempt with the weaker foot in stoppage time narrowly missed.