The coach returns to the Bernabeu in the semi-finals of the Champions League. In 2014, as soon as he fell to Bayern 1-0 in the first leg, he had the worst idea of his career for the second leg in Munich.
The situation
The journalist Marti Perarnau has it with hair and signs in his excellent x-ray as a luxury guest to the bowels of Pep Guardiola’s first Bayern. The semifinals of the Champions League in 2014, against Real Madrid and which ended in a 0-5 tie against Ancelotti, his rival again, were a huge blow for the Catalan. As Perarnau tells in his book ‘Pep Confidential: The inside story of Pep Guardiola’s first season at Bayern Munich’ , the one from Sampedro attributed the disaster to a tactical error: “It was a monumental shit. I was wrong, I was totally wrong. A disaster, the biggest shit of my life as a coach…”. A mea culpa before his closest collaborators, admitting a mistake that began to take shape in the first leg, at the Bernabéu. Bayern lost 1-0 and Pep came out of that match with very clear ideas on how to tackle the comeback. Before returning to Germany, at the same Intercontinental Hotel in Madrid he drew until 3 in the morning and together with his team the tactical lines with which he wanted to return it to Ancelotti.
Absolute shipwreck against Carletto
With that energy floating in the air comes more slate flips. “Pep changes his mind again. The 3-4-3 had become a 4-2-3-1, but now he opts for a 4-2-4 formation. Just like he did in Dortmund in July 2013 , in his debut match. But it didn’t work in Dortmund, and it won’t work now.” And so much. Madrid had a snack in the Munich midfield at the Allianz, Carletto inflicted the worst European defeat on Bayern at home (0-4) and the post-match was gloomy. Guardiola locked himself in his Allianz office with his hard core, but he left a phrase collected by Perarnau that summed up the betrayal he had self-inflicted: “I’ve spent the entire season refusing to play a 4-2-4. The entire season. And I decided to do it today, the most important night of the year. A complete shit.