MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Pep Guardiola wears a lumberjack-style shirt. Real Madrid crush Manchester City Back to the Champions League.
It’s anyone’s guess how many more chances Guardiola will have of winning European club football’s top prize with this game alone. He has one season left on his contract. And there is growing speculation that he may resign at the end of this campaign.
“Everyone wants to sack me,” Guardiola said when asked about his future after the 2-1 defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. “One day I’m going to come out here and say, ‘Goodbye, everyone.'”
Guardiola’s 10-year stay at City has been the subject of much debate, as it is the longest period he has spent as manager at the club.
He has repeatedly referred to the remaining time on his contract in response to questions, but questions remain.
After losing 5-1 on aggregate in the round of 16, he said: “The future is bright and we will be back next season.”
Was that a clue as to his immediate plans?
“Even if I retire in 10 years, I will always be at City. In the Champions League I will say I will be back because I am part of City.”
It’s hard to second-guess Guardiola. There has been frequent speculation that he could leave, but he has repeatedly signed new contracts. He never ended his contract early during his time as manager of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
But that doesn’t stop rumors that this time it will be different, with City looking set to go two years without winning a Premier League title for the first time since taking over in 2016.
Even though this was his last chance in the Champions League against City, he could do little.
He generously shook hands with all of Madrid’s players at the final whistle after another loss to the record 15-time European champions.
No team in this competition has done more to thwart his ambitions than Madrid.
It is the fourth time in the last five years that the Spanish giants have eliminated City from the Champions League. The only exception to this period was 2023, when City won their first and only trophy.
Given City’s dominance in England and the billions spent to build one of the most expensive teams in history, achieving one Champions League in a decade under Guardiola may feel like an insufficient achievement.
If it wasn’t for Madrid, things might have turned out differently. Time and again it has cursed City’s ambitions.
When asked about his record, Guardiola derisively said: “We should win six Champions Leagues.” He won the trophy three times, twice with Barcelona.
He said it would have been considered a “failure” if he did not match the three trophies he won in his first season at Barcelona: the Spanish title, the Cup and the Champions League.
“Finals, semi-finals, we tried,” he added. “I hope (this) club has the same feeling as Madrid… (If) we don’t win the Champions League, it’s a failure.
“Maybe we’ll get it eventually.”
Madrid won despite being thought to be at a disadvantage due to injuries to key players such as Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo.
Manager Alvaro Arbeloa, in his first job as an elite manager, is leading a team to back-to-back Champions League wins against Jose Mourinho and now Guardiola.
Explaining the result, which saw them beat Porto in the play-offs and now beat City, he said it only proved “that we have an incredible player.”
“I dare not say that I can beat Pep Guardiola tactically,” he said. “He is an elite coach. He has won thousands of trophies in his career, including the biggest trophies in Europe. What we won was a draw.”
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James Robson is https://x.com/James Saran Robson
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