Guardiola's explanation that he wanted to "make the Bernabeu feel that we are there" smacked of hubris. It was reminiscent of his naive set up with Bayern in 2014, which he has described as "the biggest f*ck up of my career", and soon after full-time, some damning quotes from Fabio Capello, which were made to Spanish newspaper El Mundo almost exactly a year earlier, began to resurface on social media.
"You know what I don’t like about Guardiola? His arrogance," the former England manager said. "The Champions League he won with City is the only one where he didn’t try anything funny in the decisive matches. But all the other years, in Manchester and Munich, on key days, he always wanted to be the protagonist. He would change things and invent them so he could say: ‘It’s not the players who win, it’s me’. And that arrogance cost him several Champions Leagues. I respect him, but for me, it’s clear."
Unless City become only the fifth team in the competition's modern history to overturn a deficit of three or more goals and make it to the quarter-finals, then Guardiola's arrogance will have cost him another Champions League. But just three days after his blunder at the Bernabeu, the coach made an even more baffling selection call.