Manchester City are not haunted by 2021 final defeat, insists Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has insisted he is not haunted by Manchester City’s Champions League final defeat against Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea in 2021, before the quarter-final first leg on Tuesday against the German’s current team, Bayern Munich.

City lost the 2021 showpiece 1-0, a Chelsea triumph that was engineered by Tuchel with Kai Havertz’s breakaway goal proving the winner. Yet Guardiola said on Monday that he was not troubled by the reverse for too long.

“I was sad but I congratulated him and Chelsea for the victory. It happened,” he said. “I reviewed the game a month later. It was not as bad as I thought but at the same time it was not at all a good enough performance to win it. It was a tight, tight game like they always have been against Chelsea in that period. [So]: forget it and try again.”

This is Guardiola’s seventh attempt to lead City to the Champions League, having come up short six times, but he did win it twice with Barcelona, in 2009 and 2011. In defending City’s record in Europe with him as manager, Guardiola brought up the American golfer Jack Nicklaus, whose 18 major championships is a record.

Guardiola said: “That is my dream, to live this again. To be here in front of you in a Champions League competition. We want to try like we try all the time but it doesn’t mean we are going to win. Yesterday, it was the Masters. How many Masters has Jack Nicklaus played or majors has he played in his career? In 30-40 years as a golfer of four majors [each year]?

“How many wins out of 164 tries? Eighteen wins. Wow. He loses more than he wins. That is sport. In football, in golf, in basketball. Michael Jordan, the best athlete for me in basketball, won six NBA titles out of 14 years. He loses more than he wins. What is