Pep Guardiola won’t get a heroic send off from Bayern Munich, with Atletico Madrid denying him the chance of a first Champions League final with the German outfit.
This was the third season in a row the Bundesliga champions had been knocked out at this stage, with all of them coming under the Spanish boss.
Indeed, the 45-year-old has been knocked out in the semi-finals in his last four attempts at winning Europe’s top club competition, with Barcelona eliminated by Chelsea during his last term in Catalonia.
While this is undoubtedly bad news for Guardiola, Atleti should be encouraged by what happens after getting to the final at his expense.
All of the last four teams to do this have gone on to win the tournament, with the Madrid side priced at evens to do so this term.
The Blues started this run when they emerged 3-2 victors on aggregate in their tie with Barca, before beating Bayern 4-3 on penalties to lift the trophy.
Next up came Real Madrid, who romped to a 5-0 win over two legs to eliminate Die Roten in Guardiola’s first season in Germany.
Los Merengues would go on to win their tenth Champions League, something they had been seeking to do since 2002 to prove just how powerful knocking out the former midfielder is.
His former employers were the next team to do the damage, before going on to win the competition for the first time since Guardiola left.
The trend is even stronger if you look beyond the current four-year run and look at the manager’s career as a whole.
Every time the Spanish boss has been eliminated from the Champions League it has come in the semi-finals and the team to do so have gone on to win the whole thing.
Inter Milan are the other team in this phenomenon, lifting Europe’s biggest trophy in 2010 for the first time since 1965.
