Pep Guardiola is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, in part thanks to his ability to deliver on the biggest stages of all for Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. But it’s become increasingly common to see him disappointed in major finals.
He has a largely excellent record in finals but his win percentage has taken a major hit in recent years, having suffered three defeats in the last four years after just one in the first 13 years of his managerial career.
Here are the four sides that Guardiola has suffered defeat to in a major final.
Real Madrid – 2011 Copa del Rey final
Pep Guardiola won the treble in his debut season as Barcelona boss and won all the subsequent Super Cups in year two.
Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid denied him a second treble in three years as they won out an ill-tempered Clasico Copa del Rey final, which fell slap bang in the middle of four mammoth meetings in just 18 days.
The Catalans won out in La Liga and the Champions League but it was Cristiano Ronaldo’s towering leap in extra time that settled the King’s Cup.
Barcelona might’ve won the two trophies they really wanted that year, but Los Blancos’ cup final victory showed they’d arrived as serious competitors – and sure enough the following year Mourinho led them to the league title.
Guardiola noting that a narrow offside call had a bearing on the result sparked an almighty slagging match between the two managers in the ensuing days. Football heritage, that.
READ: ‘We’re the best, f*ck you’: The story of Barca & Real’s four Clasicos in 18 days
Chelsea – 2021 Champions League final
A decade and nine successive major final victories after the Copa del Rey final loss in 2011, Guardiola tasted unthinkable defeat in a final.
Pep had won a Champions League final and a Copa del Rey final with Barcelona, two DFB Pokal finals with Bayern plus four straight League Cups and the FA Cup with City prior to meeting Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea in Porto.
His critics pointed to his tendency to ‘overthink’ big European clashes in his early years at City but when it came to finals he tended to get it right… until he didn’t. Chelsea won out 1-0 winners thanks to a Kai Havertz goal on the break.
The decision to leave out both Rodri and Fernandinho, foregoing a defensive midfielder entirely, remains baffling four years on.
Manchester United – 2024 FA Cup final
Arsenal fans watched on in horror as Guardiola’s City marched to the 2023-24 Premier League title in absolutely relentless form, not giving them an inch as they made it a historic four-in-a-row by winning their last nine matches in the competition.
Just the Gunners’ luck, then, that they finally took their foot off the gas on a different front.
Manchester United had suffered a miserable 2023-24 campaign under Erik ten Hag, ending up seven places and 31 points behind their city rivals in the league, but they arrived at Wembley with a sense of destiny after their madcap, knife-edge victories over Liverpool and Coventry City en route.
The Red Devils also had a taste for revenge after losing the final 12 months earlier, having failed to stop City in their quest to match their famous treble.
Ten Hag tweaked his side tactically and the gameplan worked to perfection. Youngsters Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho pounced on first-half City mistakes and United defended stoutly from there. A late Jeremy Doku goal gave them flutters but it was too little, too late for City.
Guardiola later stated that City were “a little bit hungover” for the occasion.
Crystal Palace – 2025 FA Cup final
The biggest shock to date.
Crystal Palace have been a thorn in the side for Guardiola’s City over the years (Andros Townsend, anyone?) but all of the Catalan coach’s previous final defeats had been against opposition of serious stature. Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United all have European Cups to their name. Crystal Palace hadn’t won a trophy… ever.
But it was a quintessential big-game performance from Oliver Glasner’s side. They defended like warriors, withstanding wave after wave of City pressure, while Eberechi Eze took a rare chance when it came his way midway through the first half.
Add in some penalty-saving heroics and a bit of fortune – Dean Henderson was arguably fortunate to avoid a red card – and you’ve got the recipe for a cupset.
We even saw a bit of classic Big Brain Pep, who perplexingly thought chasing a goal in a FA Cup final was the right moment to hand young Claudio Echeverri his debut. A wild call.
“Congratulations to Crystal Palace on their first FA Cup. It is history,” responded Guardiola in his post-match press conference.
“We played a good defensive game and controlled the transitions, and incredible threat except the goal. They are difficult to control at throw-ins and corners and free-kicks but we could not score in the last two games.
“We played better than the Southampton game, we were more active, and I would say we were really good in many things. We created a lot but we didn’t score and that’s why we could not win.”
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