Pep Guardiola lived a charmed and rather sheltered life as manager of Barcelona. His pedigree as a tactician is unquestionable but with the best players in the world at his disposal, his plans were executed excellently.
As such, the Catalan had never been on the wrong end of a mauling but since leaving home comforts behind, he’s had to deal with a few sleepless nights following some humiliating results.
On Sunday night, Everton stunned the Premier League as they plundered four goals without reply against Guardiola’s Manchester City, their second 4-0 defeat this season.
Here’s a look at his five worst defeats as manager.
INTER MILAN 3-1 BARCELONA, APRIL 2010 (CHAMPIONS LEAGUE)
Despite falling behind against the defending champions, Jose Mourinho’s Inter side produced a masterclass to stage a 3-1 comeback in the Champions League semi-final first leg.
It was a remarkable achievement for the Serie A side against an all-conquering Barcelona. Mourinho’s complicated relationship with the Spanish outfit served as the backdrop as he took on Guardiola, the man who occupied the job he so desired.
Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito were all on the score sheet as the win enabled Inter to progress to the finals of the Champions League with a 3-2 aggregate score.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 4-2 BAYERN MUNICH, JULY 2013 (GERMAN SUPERCUP)
Played one, lost one – and to your fiercest rivals no less. It was hardly the perfect start for Guardiola in German football.
Losing his first competitive match in charge of Bayern put a little bit of heat on the Spaniard who arrived with a massive reputation while fans still mourned the departure of the treble-winning Jupp Heynckes.
Despite Arjen Robben’s double, Dortmund were helped to victory with a brace from Marco Reus, an Ilkay Gundogan strike and Daniel van Buyten’s own goal.
BARCELONA 4-0 MANCHESTER CITY, OCTOBER 2016 (CHAMPIONS LEAGUE)
The most recent of his defeats, Guardiola’s City side were outclassed by a Barcelona team that exhibited bursts of scintillating football.
However, the real concern for the award-winning coach is that the hosts were aided by the individual errors of his own players.
Claudio Bravo’s howler which got him sent off stands out but there were poor performances all over the pitch and it showed just how far City were from challenging the best Europe has to offer.
EVERTON 4-0 MANCHESTER CITY, JANUARY 2017 (PREMIER LEAGUE)
Everton were at their clinical best as they swept City aside in a 4-0 thumping at Goodison Park. The Toffees forced Guardiola’s side out of the top four.
Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring before Kevin Mirallas, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman added three more goals in the second half.
The defeat only served to raise more questions of the Spaniard’s capacity to adapt to the Premier League. Much has been made of his stubborn nature and refusal to adopt a Plan B.
BAYERN MUNICH 0-4 REAL MADRID, APRIL 2014 (CHAMPIONS LEAGUE)
This is the defeat Guardiola still refers to as the worst in his career and you can understand why. Despite his domestic success with Bayern, Champions League glory was what he was hired to achieve.
With his predecessor signing off with a historic treble, the bar was set as high as it could go. Guardiola faced familiar foes in Real Madrid as they stood between him and the Champions League final.
Following a narrow defeat at the Bernabeu, the contest at the Allianz Arena was anything but close. Bayern were outdone by the two best ways to score against a Guardiola side; counter-attacks and set-pieces.
Sergio Ramos headed in twice from set-pieces while Cristiano Ronaldo rounded off a counter-attack before putting away a free-kick as well to complete the 4-0 rout.
