Guardiola against Guardiola: 11 years in search of the reconquest of Europe

• Live Sporting CP - Manchester City (9:00 p.m.)

Football goes so fast that perhaps many have forgotten it.

was only 38 years and 129 days old when he won his first Champions League in Rome.

Until then, his great success as a coach had been to raise the Barça subsidiary from Third to Second B. There were those who assumed impostor ways, who made him ugly that his godfather was

, and who presupposed a fleeting career for him because he started the League losing in Soria against Numancia and drawing against Racing at the Camp Nou.

That 2008-09 season Guardiola won everything.

From the triplet he went to the sextet.

And from there to one of the great masterpieces of European football: the 2011 Champions League final won over Manchester United again, this time at Wembley (3-1).

Guardiola has not returned to conquer Europe.

Neither with Bayern nor with Manchester City.

And the reproach is cyclical.

“[With Barcelona] we won six consecutive titles.

When you start your career with incredible players and you win everything in your first season... Suddenly everyone thinks it must be like that.

But football is very difficult, and the human being is imperfect.

I tell my players.

Let's look at ourselves.

We play against ourselves.

We face our best version.

The proclamation was not made by the coach in the run-up to an iconic duel or today's round of 16 match against Sporting de Portugal in Lisbon, but before facing Norwich last week.

What difference does it make.

Pep Guardiola is convinced that he is still facing his own legend.

The exhibition against PSG

Guardiola faces his sixth season at the helm of a Manchester City team that last year managed to qualify for the final of the tournament, where he was defeated against Chelsea by one of his apostles,

.

It was the first time that Santpedor's coach reached the final match since he left Barcelona (with Bayern he linked three semifinals and with City, until then, he had not managed to get past the quarterfinals).

And this season he is once again among the great favorites to win the continental title, even more so after his team's collective display in the group stage against

's PSG ,

and

at the Etihad.

This is an author City that does not need the figure of a center forward (

acts as a false nine) because up to nine different players have scored in the current Champions League (the winger

, who more with five goals);

a team that gives internal flight to one of its wings (

) to set up the game;

and a group that places four of its players among those who execute the most passes in their league (Cancello again,

,

and

).

17 wins in 19 matches

The

team, leader in a Premier in which they lead Liverpool by nine points (

's men have one less game), has taken up their usual cruising speed again.

So much so that they have won 17 of their last 19 games, with a balance of 52 goals for and just 13 against.

To Guardiola, the coach of the 31 titles in 12 seasons, there will be those who continue to remind him that during his time in Manchester, City has invested 1,087 million euros in signings (

, out today with

, cost 117.5 million on last summer).

But neither the bills, nor even the titles, are what make one transcend.

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