After reaching the third Champions League final of his career, Pep Guardiola had the most honest reaction right after the final whistle.
Reaching a Champions League final is not an easy accomplishment, even if your name is Pep Guardiola. Very few will argue that the Catalan manager is already amongst the best coaches in this sport’s history. And yet, it took him a full decade to reach this stage again. Despite having some of the most competitive rosters in world football both at Bayern and Manchester City, he still struggled.
But this was the year in which everything changed for Pep, the year he can finally silence his critics. He knows that getting to this stage in the competition has a lot more to do with fortune than being prepared to compete. After finally getting to the promised land, Pep was extremely satisfied for his players. During all those five years trying to get there, Guardiola never stopped believing it was possible.
Pep is thrilled for City and the players.
Right after the match, Guardiola made sense of this massive accomplishment for Manchester City via BBC Sport: “This is remarkable. People believe it’s easy to arrive in the final of the Champions League. Getting to the final now makes sense of what we have done in the past four or five years. Every day these guys have been consistent. We scored a goal through the hips [of the defensive wall] in the first game.
“Today, Marquinhos hit the bar in the first half – you can be out for little details. Manchester United won a title because of John Terry’s slip and scored in the last minute against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid won a title against Atletico in the 93rd minute. It’s a competition that is so difficult and something in the stars is involved in that.”
Be sure not to miss out on the latest news about Champions League
Download our brand new App and follow your favorite players, clubs, and much more
