Pep Guardiola suffered three straight defeats for only the fourth time in his managerial career as Manchester City were beaten 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the rare times he has experienced a losing run.
City stumbles
– Three of Guardiola’s three-game losing runs have come with City, first in April 2018 when a 3-2 league defeat to a Paul Pogba-inspired Manchester United was sandwiched between Champions League losses to Liverpool, Mohamed Salah scoring in both legs of the quarter-final.
– Kai Havertz’s Champions League final winner for Chelsea in May 2021 started a run of three straight 1-0 losses for City spanning two seasons and three competitions. City old boy Kelechi Iheanacho won the Community Shield for Leicester before Tottenham won the 2021-22 Premier League opener 1-0 through Son Heung-min.
– A 2-1 loss to Spurs kicked off the current run, Bournemouth winning by the same score before Viktor Gyokeres’ hat-trick fired Sporting to a memorable win in Ruben Amorim’s penultimate match before leaving to manage Manchester United.
– Only four other times have City suffered two straight losses under Guardiola – to Crystal Palace and Leicester in December 2018, Manchester United and Spurs in early 2020, Southampton and United in January 2023 and Newcastle and Wolves in September of that same year.
Bayern and Barcelona
– With Bayern Munich in May 2015, Guardiola suffered consecutive defeats to Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg in the Bundesliga and his former club Barcelona in the Champions League, with his protege Lionel Messi scoring twice.
– That was the only time in three seasons Guardiola’s Bayern side lost even two games in succession.
– With Barca, he never lost more than two games in a row – to Wisla Krakow and Numancia in his second and third games in charge in 2008, Mallorca and Osasuna in LaLiga in 2009 and Chelsea and Real Madrid in April 2012.
