A better record than Mourinho – Guardiola´s 100 Champions League games in numbers 7 December 2017
A 2-1 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk may not have been how Pep Guardiola envisaged his 100th Champions League match as a manager going.
Guardiola fielded a much-changed side on Wednesday, with City already guaranteed to finish top of Group F and a derby against local rivals Manchester United and Jose Mourinho set for Sunday.
Sergio Aguero’s late penalty was not enough to stave of a 16th Champions League loss of the pioneering Spaniard’s managerial career on a milestone night in Europe’s premier competition.
With the help of Opta, we look at how Guardiola’s record measures up against his contemporaries.
BAVARIAN BLISS & HOME COMFORTS
Guardiola’s best win percentage in the Champions League (63.9) came during his three seasons in charge of Bayern Munich, where he won 23 of his 36 outings in the competition.
However, the Spaniard was unable to replicate his two title wins with Barcelona, the Bundesliga side going out at the semi-final stage in each year of his tenure.
Guardiola’s sides prove particularly formidable at home. He has overseen just four defeats on home soil – two apiece at Barca and Bayern – for a win percentage of 78.43, and remains undefeated in this competition as City boss at the Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola + = #UCL pic.twitter.com/FPtQ0Zmeow
— #TeamOfTheYear (@ChampionsLeague) November 21, 2017
DONETSK DEJA VU
The 46-year-old has not pitted his wits against any side on more occasions than Shakhtar, his eight clashes with the Ukrainian side only matched by meetings with Arsenal.
It is therefore unsurprising that Guardiola has beaten Shakhtar more than any other side (five wins), while he is four from four against CSKA Moscow and Viktoria Plzen – the latter by an aggregate score of 12-0.
There are just four sides against whom he holds a win percentage below 50 per cent: Celtic, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Rubin Kazan.
UP AGAINST THE GREATS
Guardiola will move beyond Mircea Lucescu (103) into fifth on the list of the Champions League’s most experienced managers should City make this season’s quarter-finals.
He has some way to go to match rival Jose Mourinho (139), with Carlo Ancelotti (153), Arsene Wenger (184) and Alex Ferguson (190) even further in the distance.
Why Guardiola is considered the best in the business is evidenced by a Champions League win percentage of 61 – the highest of any manager to have overseen 50 games in the competition and better than Louis van Gaal (60), Vicente del Bosque (56.7), Rafael Benitez (55.8) and Mourinho (55.4).
8 – Pep Guardiola has reached a semi-final in all eight of his seasons in senior club management. Business. pic.twitter.com/bxFA5sCmnH
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 11, 2017
ANCELOTTI AHEAD
Guardiola led Barca to a historic treble in his first season at the helm in 2008-09 and reclaimed the Champions League trophy two years later.
His two European triumphs match the likes of Mourinho, Ferguson, Del Bosque, Jupp Heynckes and Zinedine Zidane.
Carlo Ancelotti is the only coach to have won the competition in its modern guise on more occasions, leading AC Milan to glory in 2003 and 2007 before guiding Madrid to the long-awaited ‘Decima’ in 2014.
