Pep Guardiola has embarked on his latest attempt to lead Manchester City to the glory of the Champions League with a hint of disappointment in the past raising concerns about his ability to find the title he still does not have.

City will await Porto’s presence at the Champions League group stage.

Despite being successful at the domestic level over the past few years, City have never surpassed the Champions League semi-finals and Guardiola has found the tournament too difficult for almost a decade.

Since he won the Champions League as Barcelona boss for the second time in 2011, Guardiola has failed to return to the final of the European elite tournament.

The nine-year drought includes a four-year period since he took over City in 2016.

At that point Guardiola saw City lose to Monaco in the last 16 as well as Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon in the quarterfinals.

He also lost three semi-finals as Bayern Munich manager before moving to City.

The shock of losing 3-1 at the hands of Lyon near Lisbon last season clearly had an impact when City were placed as an option to overtake the French club.

Guardiola should be blamed when his tactics are clearly not possible for his players to turn the competition into City’s.

Criticism has also been leveled at Guardiola that the success of the Champions League in Barcelona is due to the presence of great players like Lionel Messi.

And the positive factor of the defeat to Lyon is that it is not the end to their presence again in Europe this season.