Eight years ago, Pep Guardiola created a monster when he transformed a reasonably successful Barcelona side into arguably the finest team club football has ever seen.
After four years and an incredible 14 trophies, the Spaniard left the Nou Camp but the most fearsome monsters evolve and after a transitional spell, that’s precisely what Barcelona have done under Luis Enrique.
On Wednesday night, on his return to the stadium where he achieved so much, Guardiola was hardly a happy camper. A warm embrace with Enrique in the tunnel was as good as it got for the Manchester City boss as his side were dealt a 4-0 humbling with Guardiola’s former golden boy Lionel Messi running rampant.
The result was a stunning indication of how far Barcelona have come since his departure and how far he needed to take the Premier League outfit.
A defeat of this nature is not something Guardiola is accustomed to but he’s not completely alien to it either.
Here’s a look at his five worst defeats as manager.
BAYERN MUNICH 0-3 BORUSSIA DORTMUND, APRIL 2014 (BUNDESLIGA)
Despite coming against their closest rivals, the defeat was an upset for Guardiola’s Bayern side. The Bavarians were running away with the league title but were knocked down a peg.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan opened the scoring in the 20th minute before second half strikes from Marco Reus and Jonas Hoffman confirmed the victory for the visitors.
Bayern suffered little more than wounded pride though as Jurgen Klopp’s side remained a massive 17 points adrift with just four games left.
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.
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.
