Guardiola Facing His Nemesis as Man City Battle Bayern in Q’final

The real business end of the UEFA Champions League starts today with the final eight going head-to-head in the quarter-final first legs. And expectedly, Pep Guardiola goes back to face his old club for the first time since leaving Bayern Munich for Manchester City in 2016.

He was expecting to face a Julian Nagelsmann team again (having beaten his Hoffenheim twice in 2018-19), but the German side recently sacked him and appointed Thomas Tuchel – a name Guardiola is even more familiar with.

The managers have met 10 times before during a decade-long rivalry with Guardiola winning six and Tuchel three – those successes all coming in a six-week spell between 17 April and 29 May 2021.

That run – which included Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final and Champions League final wins over City – led to a feeling that Tuchel had the edge on Guardiola. In that final Guardiola famously did not play a defensive midfielder in a tactical gamble that failed.

But City beat Tuchel’s Chelsea twice in the Premier League last season, and with four wins and a draw in Germany, including the 2016 DFB-Pokal final, Guardiola actually has the much better record.

Guardiola has had a mixed time against his old clubs. He has faced Barcelona four times since leaving – twice with City and twice with Bayern. He won two of those, but the other matches were 3-0 and 4-0 defeats.

TODAY @8pm

Benfica v Inter Milan

Man City v B’Munich

WEDNESDAY 

AC Milan v Napoli

Real Madrid v Chelsea