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Real Madrid pose huge threat to Pep Guardiola's Champions League legacy at Manchester City after Uefa ban

Getty Images
Getty Images

Just a few days ago, Pep Guardiola claimed that failure to beat Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16 could spell the end of his tenure at Manchester City.

Now, after the Premier League champions were hit with a two-season ban from the continental competition for 'serious breaches' of Uefa's financial regulations, this could very well be his last chance to win it – even if he stays.

“I want to win the Champions League,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “I dream [of it] and I will enjoy preparing for the games against Madrid, to see what we can do and this process, two weeks before, will be the happiest moments of my profession, to imagine what we can do to beat them.

“If we don’t beat them, OK, come the chairman or the sport director and say, ‘It’s not good enough, we want the Champions League, I’m going to sack you’. OK, [I’d say], ‘Thank you, it was a pleasure’. I don’t know [if this would happen]. It has happened many times and could maybe happen.”

Guardiola has led City to two Premier League titles, two League Cups and an FA Cup in his time in Manchester so far, but the Catalan coach has been unable to take the club beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Pep's side have lost out in entertaining ties to Monaco, Liverpool and Tottenham over the past three seasons and he has not won the competition since his brilliant Barcelona team beat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley in 2011.

Following Friday's news, sources close to the 49-year-old dismissed talk of a possible exit as 'bulls***', but with Liverpool set to win the Premier League this term and a two-year European ban ahead (subject to appeal), this season's Champions League assumes even greater significance for the Catalan.

Because winning Europe's premier club competition was at the heart of Sheikh Mansour's expensive project at City and Guardiola was seen as the best man to bring home the coveted trophy. He still may be, but failure to win it this season would mean, if the ban is upheld, that the club would have to wait until 2022-23 for another shot at glory.

"I don't know what will happen. I'm not going to talk about the ban. That's not my job," Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said on Saturday. "When we play against them, I will only talk about football. They have a very competitive, very strong team, and that won't change."

One of Guardiola's most painful memories in the Champions League was the semi-final in 2013-14, when his Bayern Munich siide were beaten 4-0 by Carlo Ancelotti's Madrid (with Zidane as the Italian's assistant) at the Allianz Arena and lost 5-0 on aggregate.

Pep's tactics in Europe seem to have been conditioned by that defeat ever since and the Catalan's over-thinking has led to some strange decisions – and disappointing results – in the competition in recent seasons.

Madrid, meanwhile, struggled at the start of the season but Zidane's side have hit some superb form in the last couple of months. Los Blancos claimed the Spanish Supercopa in January and are now top of LaLiga as well. And their defence is the meanest in Europe's top five leagues.

Zidane left Madrid in the summer of 2016, having led Los Blancos to three consecutive Champions League titles, and the Frenchman has still never not won the competition in his short coaching career, having returned to the club last March with Real already out.

Summer signing Eden Hazard is about to return following a long layoff and Madrid will pose a huge threat to City's Champions League hopes this season.

And Guardiola's European legacy at the Manchester club is also at stake against the eternal enemy from his Barcelona days. With a two-year ban looming, defeat to Real is unthinkable for Pep.

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