Guardiola set to come up short again in CL

LIVERPOOL, England (AP):

Pep Guardiola was ridiculed when he backed Barcelona to mount a historic comeback from 4-0 down against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League (CL) last season. Back then, the former Barcelona player and coach warned that the Spanish team "will be back and prove you wrong."

He was right about that. Barcelona won the second leg 6-1. But with a similar deficit facing Manchester City, Guardiola didn't sound quite as convinced.

"In this room, I think there is nobody, except the guy talking to you, who believes we can go through," the Spaniard said after City's 3-0 loss at Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. "There are 90 minutes more. We are going to try."

His statement lacked conviction, just like City's play at Anfield on Wednesday when Guardiola's tactics were pulled apart, not for the first time at this level in recent years.

Guardiola's decision to change his approach and play an extra central midfielder, Ilkay Gundogan, instead of winger Raheem Sterling was based on his belief that it would allow City to take charge of midfield.

"We wanted more passes, more control," Guardiola said.

Game passed city by

By the time Gundogan went off after 57 minutes the game having virtually passed him by to be replaced by Sterling, City were losing 3-0, and their players were struggling to clear their minds after Liverpool's devastating first-half display.

Liverpool had taken advantage of City's lack of width on the right as left back Andrew Robertson repeatedly burst forward in support of Sadio Mane, leaving City right back Kyle Walker exposed. City's central-midfield four seemed unsure about their exact roles; the diagonal switch to left winger Leroy Sane became a default ploy because of a lack of options on the other flank, and lone striker Gabriel Jesus was left too isolated.

It revived memories of Guardiola's time at Bayern Munich, when he changed his formation to 4-2-4 for the second leg of the semi-finals against Real Madrid. Madrid, 1-0 ahead from the first leg, won the return match 4-0 in one of the most humiliating nights of Guardiola's career.

Unless City pulls off a Barcelona-style recovery, it will be seven years since Guardiola last won the Champions League when Barcelona won for the second time with that enchanting 3-1 victory over Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. A semi-final loss with Barcelona in 2012 was followed by three straight exits at the last four with Bayern. City under Guardiola was eliminated by Monaco in the last 16 last year, and now faces going out in the quarter-finals.