In this series, Jonathan Wilson retells the stories of the five greatest Champions League matches this century. In last week's instalment, number five, we relived Barcelona's dominant 2-0 win over Manchester United in the 2009 final, one of Pep Guardiola's greatest victories. Now onto number 4, one of his worst ever defeats…
4) Bayern Munich 0-4 Real Madrid (semi-final second leg, 2014)
There is one great story over the past decade in the Champions League, one narrative that binds everything together, and it is that of Pep Guardiola.
He is a brilliant and visionary tactician. In 10 completed seasons as a coach he has won eight league titles. He has redefined what is possible in terms of possession at the highest level of football. And yet he has not won the Champions League since 2011. He has won fewer Champions Leagues as a manager than Zinedine Zidane, whose impact on the tactical evolution of the game is essentially nil.
At first, the Champions League exits were the result of extraordinary misfortune and remarkably resilient defending. In Guardiola’s four seasons at Barcelona, he won the Champions League in 2009 and 2011, and went out of it in 2010 and 2012 to Jose Mourinho’s Inter and Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea, on both occasions after Barca’s opponents withstood protracted sieges at the Camp Nou.
The first sign of a more profound shift came in 2013, when Guardiola was taking his sabbatical in New York and Barcelona, under his former assistant Tito Vilanova, faced Bayern Munich, the club he was set to take over that summer. Bayern, under Jupp Heynckes, won 7-0 on aggregate. An obvious (and largely inaccurate, given Vilanova was not Guardiola, and one tie is rarely conclusive proof of anything) narrative was established: Bayern had just appointed the high priest of a footballing philosophy that their own outgoing veteran had just exposed.
Guardiola took over a side that has just won a Treble. He instilled his juego de posicion at Bayern. They won the league and cup double playing astonishing football. There was an acceptance at the club that Guardiola had taken them into a new age. But Heynckes had won the Champions League in his final season: missing out on that would, inevitably, seem to some like a step backwards.
Bayern cruised through the group, winning their first five games. They outplayed Arsenal and then beat Manchester United to set up a semi-final against Guardiola’s old rivals, Real Madrid, by then managed by Carlo Ancelotti. Did that lead Guardiola to try to make a point? Perhaps. Bayern set out in the first leg in the Bernabeu, Guardiola said, “to show they are real footballers, to take the ball and play, then play again.”
After 18 minutes they had had 82 per cent of the ball. But then Madrid countered and Fabio Coentrão squared for Karim Benzema to score. Bayern continued to dominate the ball; Madrid continued to look the more dangerous. It finished 1-0. “Possession,” Franz Beckenbauer said on Sky Italia, “is meaningless if you give away chances. We should be grateful Madrid didn’t score more.”
During the post-match dinner in Madrid, Guardiola decided for the return leg he would play a 3-4-3. He also knew that the issue in Madrid hadn’t just been tactical; Bayern’s form had dipped after wrapping up the title, their intensity diminished. But on the flight home, he changed his mind. They hadn’t used a back three since December: he would play a 4-2-3-1 that would liberate Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry.
That Friday, Tito Vilanova died.
On the Saturday, Bayern beat Werder Bremen 5-2. Ribéry played well and Robben scored after coming off the bench, but there were defensive concerns. Monday’s training was light. Guardiola asked his players how they felt. They were excited. They spoke of great comebacks of the past. The desire seemed to be back. Guardiola decided to yield to passion. He would attack, not with a 4-2-3-1 but with a 4-2-4. It was, he later said, “the biggest f***-up” of his career.
Gareth Bale had already sliced over after an error from Manuel Neuer when Sergio Ramos headed in a Luka Modric corner after 16 minutes. Four minutes late, he had another one, this time after Pepe had touched on Angel Di Maria’s free-kick. Bayern suddenly needed four. They never looked like getting them. Madrid threatened constantly on the counter. Cristiano Ronaldo added a third on the break before half-time, then wrapped up a 4-0 win with a free-kick under the wall.
Guardiola’s side had been undone by set plays and counter-attacks. The sense of awe the rest of football had felt when witnessing his style had diminished: it had become clear that if you could get beyond their press, if you could make their defenders defend, they might be vulnerable. The litany of exits before the final has continued – some the result of misfortune, some the result of collapses like that against Madrid, some the result of inspired opposition.
And so the narrative goes on: Guardiola, the frustrated genius, still searching for a third Champions League, nine years after his last.
No 5 – Guardiola's Barcelona humble Man Utd in Rome
No 4 – Ramos and Ronaldo crush Bayern in Bavaria
No 3 – Klopp's Liverpool pull off a miracle against Barcelona
No 2 – Mourinho loses but proves his point at the Nou Camp
No 1 – Liverpool edge gloriously chaotic classic in Istanbul
