Pep Guardiola rejected the suggestion that Manchester City‘s 4-0 thrashing by former club Barcelona was the worst of his managerial career.
Lionel Messi’s hat-trick and a goal from Neymar saw City well beaten in their Champions League group game after goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was sent off for handling outside his penalty area.
But despite the heavy and personal nature of the loss, Guardiola says his worst ever defeat came with previous club Bayern Munich, not on Wednesday evening at his former home.
“The worst defeat of my career was with Bayern against Madrid. It was the whole situation and the mistakes I made with the starting line-up,” he told AS.
“Last time with Bayern [in 2014] we didn’t create chances, but today we did; we created chances to score one or two goals.
“But Barca can punish you, they have a lot of quality. We controlled [the game], except the goal.”
Bayern were humbled to the tune of 4-0 in a Champions League semi-final second leg in 2014, with two goals each for Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo sending Real through to the final.
The result, against his historical rivals, came as a real embarrassment for Guardiola, with the Catalan coach unable to improve the Bavarian club’s fortunes in Europe’s premier competition.
City’s loss in Barcelona, by contrast, comes in the group stages and Guardiola could argue the score line did not accurately reflect the play.
The away side had plenty of chances to score, with Barca goalkeeper Marc- Andre Ter Stegen making good stops from Ilkay Gundogan to ensure the hosts went in at half-time 1-0 up.
Guardiola chose to leave striker Sergio Aguero on the bench, opting to play attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne up front due to the desire to keep “an extra man in midfield.”
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