Guardiola teaches Tuchel a lesson

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom — Manchester City has one foot in the Champions League semifinals after a 3-0 win over Bayern Munich on Tuesday that served as a reminder of manager Pep Guardiola's brilliance despite his long wait to conquer Europe.

Guardiola claimed to have been "emotionally destroyed" by the tension of a night on which his current side showed a clinical edge it has often lacked to get over the line at this stage of the competition.

In the 12 years since Guardiola last lifted the European Cup as Barcelona boss, he has often been accused of over-complicating things in the Champions League knockout stages.

That included three semifinal exits during his time in charge of Bayern between 2014 and 2016.

The closest Guardiola has come to delivering City's long-awaited Champions League glory came in losing the 2021 final to Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea.

Tuchel's appointment as Bayern boss less than three weeks ago appeared very much with this tie in mind.

But this time the German was outfoxed as all of Guardiola's big calls paid off to inflict Bayern's heaviest Champions League defeat for six years.

After much tinkering early in the season, Guardiola has settled on a back four made up entirely of players considered as natural central defenders — Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, John Stones and Manuel Akanji.

As a result, Joao Cancelo was on the Bayern bench having been surprisingly allowed to leave on loan in January by Guardiola.

Stones has tended to be the Portuguese's successor by acting as rightback out of possession and moving into midfield when City has the ball.

But the England international started at centerback, with Akanji shifted to rightback to handle the pace of Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman.

"The game that played all four is amazing because to handle Leroy and Coman you have to be defensively really good in the duels," said Guardiola.

"The back four, how they handled it without stress, without being anxious. Knowing that in that type of game there are minutes where you are going to suffer, to struggle."

'Punished brutally'

For once City ended a home game with inferior possession stats to the opposition, but led through Rodri's stunning first-half strike and then ruthlessly pounced on Bayern errors in the final 20 minutes.

"We got punished brutally," said Tuchel. "This is the highest level in world football."

Guardiola's decision to recall Bernardo Silva at the expense of Riyad Mahrez paid off when the Portugal midfielder capped a brilliant performance by heading home the second goal.

By that point Julian Alvarez had replaced Kevin De Bruyne in a change that helped swing the momentum City's way.

"I'm here to take decisions and I take it. That's my biggest quality as a manager," added Guardiola on De Bruyne's withdrawal.

"I see the performance on the pitch, and in that moment we needed extra energy with Julian and that's why I decided."

Twice Alvarez came close to scoring himself, but the Argentine turned provider for the third goal that gives Bayern a mountain to climb in Munich.

An Alvarez cross was headed down by Stones and into the path of Erling Haaland to slot home his 45th goal of the season.

Haaland was signed to be the difference maker when ties like this are decided by fine margins.

The same was said of Guardiola when he was first lured from Munich to Manchester seven years ago.

City's Abu Dhabi owners are still waiting for their moment of Champions League glory, but Guardiola's men are getting closer.

Only a remarkable Bayern comeback next week will deny them a third consecutive semifinal.

AFP