Since 2011, when Barcelona defeated Manchester United at Wembley in London «, Josep Guardiola's teams reached the final only twice. Good domestic successes (championship titles in Germany and England) were nothing compared to how Bayern and City played in European competition. So:
- 2011/12 — semi-finals in the farewell season with Barça;
- 2013/14 — the defeat of Bayern in the semi-finals from Real Madrid and the royal bunch of BBC (Bale — Benzema — Ronaldo);
- 2014/15— again declass in the 1/2 finals, this time Barcelona and the trio MSN (Messi — Suarez — Neymar) showed off over the Germans;
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Summary: in ten draws, Guardiola took part in the final once, reached the semi-finals six times. Two more times the Spaniard fought in the quarterfinals; stopped at the stage of 1/8 finals only in 2017 br>
A week later, the Spanish specialist will have a new opportunity to take the big-eared trophy. On June 10, his magnificent «Manchester» (obvious favorite of the final) in Istanbul will play with the Italian «Inter».
UEFA Champions League
June 10, 2023 • start at 22:00
Completed< br>
Manchester CityEngland
1 : 0 cb76cb7aef0a.png» />Inter Mitalia
68' • Rodrigo Hernandez
Why on Has Guardiola been unable to win the Champions League for 12 years? One of the fan versions is the curse of African shamans. Suddenly? Now we'll tell you everything.
Our focus is Guardiola, Russian agent Dmitry Selyuk and his star client Yaya Toure. The latter changed Barcelona to Manchester City in the summer of 2010 (sold for a large €24 million at the time), but the Ivorian's separation from Catalonia can hardly be called painless. The football player was offended by the young coach, who started the restructuring and frankly «sheathed» the midfielder. The same fate will subsequently befall Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who ended his career the day before yesterday, and English goalkeeper, City legend Joe Hart — Pep does not care about star status, he is no stranger to making tough decisions and clearing the field for the construction of new projects.
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"I want to destroy his myth. I realized that I did not play not because of the physical condition. I do not know why, but he perceived me as an enemy. Josep was cruel to me. Do you really think he could do that to someone like Iniesta? I came to the conclusion that this is due to the color of the skin. Other Barça players asked the same question. When you see that Pep often had problems with Africans, in every team, I ask myself a question. He is too intelligent to be caught … But when he puts five Africans on the field, I promise that I will send him a cake, «Toure said in an interview with France Football.
Note that the four-time African Player of the Year has apologized to the coach for such controversial accusations in a letter to the Spaniard.
In 2016, Guardiola and Touré were back on the same team. The Ivorian was afraid that the Spaniard would survive him from Manchester. However, no: until June 2018, the footballer played for the “citizens” for two seasons, after which he flew to the Greek Olympiakos. But his agent continued to criticize the City manager and his inappropriate treatment of the players. Selyuk claimed that Guardiola, except for the Catalans, does not like any nationality, and also fawns over the sheikhs (“He will make millionaires out of Arab billionaires”). Mentor «citizens» then offended, threw Yaya out of the application for the Champions League and demanded an apology from the representative of the Ivorian. Selyuk did not apologize to the coach for his criticism. Selyuk seemed to put a curse on the two-time winner of the Champions League, which has been «acting» for four draws of the main club tournament in Europe.
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“God sees everything. How did a man deal with Yaya, the legend of the club, which, under various pretexts, did not allow him to enter the field … He turned the whole of Africa against himself, many African fans turned their backs on Manchester City. I am sure that many African shamans in the future will not let Guardiola win the Champions League. It will be like an African curse — life will show whether I am right or not,» Selyuk said in an interview with Sport24. even four years later, the retired Ivorian has to comment on him.
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» The press is quoting my former agent's words about the «curse». Please don't associate me with this bullshit and lazy African curse stereotypes. This person does not represent me in any way, and it is harmful to reinforce such stereotypes, ”Ture wrote on social networks in May 2022.
But there is good news for Manchester City fans ahead of the big game of the 2022/23 season: that 'curse' seems to have been lifted. And the «citizens» and their helmsman will approach the second UEFA Champions League final in three years without too much emotional burden.
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"I can say that the curse has been lifted by shamans. Think City win the Champions League with Guardiola. Whatever happens, they will obviously do it in the next three years. I want to apologize for what happened — I know that Toure also feels this bitterness, because he wants nothing but success for the club,» Selyuk quotes the Mirror.