Why Manchester City Never Won The Champions League

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has attributed their past failures in the UEFA Champions League to their defensive frailties. Despite winning several domestic titles with the Premier League champions, Guardiola has so far been unable to lift the coveted European trophy during his tenure.

Guardiola’s remarks came after City’s 7-0 drubbing of RB Leipzig in the second leg of the Round of 16 fixture at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening, securing their spot in the quarter-finals with an 8-1 aggregate victory. Erling Haaland scored five of the goals for City.

Speaking to journalists after the match, Guardiola highlighted that scoring goals has never been the problem for his team in Europe, but rather their tendency to concede “stupid goals” in the past.

He said, “Always we have scored goals here. We scored four goals against Real Madrid. We scored six goals against Monaco. We scored four goals against Tottenham here. The problem is not that we do not score goals. The problem is that we conceded stupid goals in the past. We gift them. Most of the time, we gift them.”

The Manchester City manager has led his teams to win the Champions League twice before, while he was in charge of Barcelona.

However, his previous successes have not been replicated with Manchester City. Guardiola has come close to winning the trophy with City, reaching the semi-finals last season but failing to progress further after being beaten in the final by Chelsea the previous year.

Guardiola’s comments highlight the importance of solid defending in European competition. With the knockout stages of the Champions League looming, Manchester City will be hoping to tighten their defence in order to finally secure the elusive trophy.