Pep Guardiola gave Manchester City glory in English football but they had some painful experiences in the Champions League.
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JULY 13: Enzo Maresca Chelsea FC Head Coach restrains Gianluigi Donnarumma of PSG as tempers flare following the final whistle of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 final match between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium on July 13, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
Enzo Maresca has relished big occasions against European opponents
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Whoever wins the Champions League final on Saturday, it will feel like another loss for Manchester City. Buoyant after securing a top-eight finish, the Blues headed to Madrid with optimism in March but everything went wrong and they suffered another early exit.
For all the astonishing success Pep Guardiola has had in English football, and all the memories that were made in Istanbul in 2023, his City teams consistently underperformed in Europe. Implosions in 2018 and 2019 against Liverpool and Spurs stopped a side that felt they were the best on the continent from getting beyond the quarter-finals, and City believed they should have gone further than they did in 2022 and 2024 as well.
It was interesting to hear Guardiola talk in his last interview as manager, reflecting on the need to be more pragmatic in Europe still, that sometimes his attacking philosophy does not need to be so relentless. Looking at the team picked in Madrid, whatever the luck of the scoreline as they lost 3-0, it goes down as another missed opportunity.
And so to Saturday. Either Arsenal plant their flag in Budapest and win their first ever Champions League title to add to the winning feeling in Mikel Arteta's squad, or Paris Saint-Germain go back-to-back and strike up the reputation that City thought they should have had.
City's owners were keen to capitalise on victory in 2023 and wanted to do in Europe what they had managed in England with City's remarkable consistency, yet instead the Blues will have to swallow their medicine this weekend as at least one team they are competing with pulls further away from them. It will be little consolation to Guardiola that both Arteta and Luis Enrique are friends and men who have been heavily influenced by him.
City will start fresh next season looking to change the narrative, and it is at least one area where Enzo Maresca is not facing as daunting a task as the rest of it. Trying to match four league titles in a row is an impossible act to follow, but the Champions League is an area where there is much easier room for improvement.
Maresca has had a solid start too, even if there is not much to go off. He won the Conference League with Chelsea in 2025, managing his squad smartly even if they were expected to win it, and then produced a masterclass in the final of the Club World Cup to thrash PSG 3-0.
This season (or last, if you're there already), Maresca steered Chelsea to 6th place in the Champions League standings - level on points with City and above them on goal difference. That earned them a spot in the last-16 without the need for a play-off, but it was Liam Rosenior in charge by the time they were mauled by PSG in what was as tough a draw as City managed.
As another European final passes the Blues by, Maresca knows he has a clear chance of showing improvement at the Etihad next season in at least one competition.