Guardiola, a hat-trick for history: "Madrid don't trust themselves, we're only 13 away"

Valentí Guardiola, who still suffers like few others when he sees his son so exposed, would have liked Pep to follow in his footsteps and become a bricklayer. Although the profession of soccer player, first, and coach, later, was much better suited to the personality of Santpedor's prodigal son, where he was always able to unleash that creative torrent in which obsession so often surpassed illusion.

In which the suffering, so often shared with his emotional bishop, Manel Estiarte, did not lose positions despite the accumulation of earthly successes (35 trophies, including 14 with Barcelona, seven with Bayern and 14 with Manchester City), as well as cultural (Simone Inzaghi, his rival in the final, repeated as many times as necessary that Guardiola is the best coach in the world). The coach confessed that the Champions League is “a coin in the air” and that this trophy is “fuckingly difficult to win.”

There will always be someone who takes economics as an argument to detract from what has been achieved. Since Pep Guardiola arrived at City seven years ago, the Abu Dhabi royal family has spent 1,240 million euros on signings (with a total of 666 million negative balances between purchases and sales).

But regardless of the fact that Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed finally got away with it when he acquired a middling Manchester City in 2008 – it wasn't even enough for the Qatari royals to bring together Messi, Mbappé and Neymar to achieve the Champions League with PSG-, the feeling of a product molded with patience and great skill inhabits the team.

Because many times large amounts were invested in defenders and team players, not so much in stickers (the specific need, and there the arrival of Haaland in the face of the need for potential in the area, took precedence over media exuberance). Because there are players who have known how to push their abilities to the limit (see De Bruyne, Gündogan or Bernardo Silva). And because tactical immobility was never an option, with Stones' dual placement as center-back and midfielder being the main variant of the season.

City, before Guardiola, had never reached a European Cup final. He has already done it in two. He lost the one two years ago in Porto against Chelsea after a mistake that Guardiola is still reminded of (he erased his defensive midfielders, Fernandinho and Rodrigo with the hope that Gündogan would manage on his own). And he won this Saturday in Istanbul against Inter. With all that this entails given the need for the industry and its fans to extol recognition based on titles. As if that was all that mattered.

With Paisley and Zidane

Well then. Here it is. Pep Guardiola, after the triplet that became a sextet achieved with Barcelona in 2009, has already taken the first triple crown in the history of Manchester City, with whom this season he had already won both the Premier League and the FA Cup at Wembley against Manchester United, which to date was the only English club to have achieved the treble. The coach assured that after the World Cup they took a step forward and did not want to talk about the reset that they will have to do for next season.

City, then, is the eighth club to achieve the feat. In addition to the aforementioned United, Celtic (1967), Ajax (1972), PSV (1988), Barcelona (2009 and 2015), Inter (2010) and Bayern (2013 and 2020) achieved it before.

Guardiola, in addition, goes with his three Champions to occupy the same step as Bob Paisley with Liverpool (1977, 1978 and 1981) and Zinedine Zidane with Real Madrid (2016, 2017 and 2018), being one of the four behind Carlo ancelotti. “Let Madrid not trust that we are only 13 away,” concludes the Catalan coach.