14.01.2010 17:37
The end of 21 perfect months
Jesús Carrillo
Barca’s elimination by Seville on Wednesday night was the first time the team had been knocked out of a cup competition since April 2008, when they went down at Old Trafford to Manchester United.
It’s been 21 months without a cup defeat for Barca since the night of April 20th at Old
Trafford when they went out of to Champions League to the eventual winners Manchester United.
The team that won everything
Since Pep Guardiola took over as manager the club has enjoyed one of
its most successful ever periods in its long and glorious history as the team has won the Spanish
Cup and League, Champions League, Spanish and European Super Cups and the World Club Cup and
Wednesday nights elimination was the first the team has suffered under the guidance of their
Catalan boss.
Four leagues for Pep
If the team’s achievement in going 21 months without defeat is
impressive, even more so is their manager’s. Since he began with Barca B in the third
division in July 2007, Guardiola has won every league title possible – Group 5 of the third
division with the reserves, last year’s La Liga title and both Group stages in the Champions
League
12 knock out wins……
Guardiola has won 12 of the 13 knock out ties he’s been in charge
of . With Barca B he oversaw the defeats of Castillo and Barbastre in the play offs for promotion
to Segona B and as boss of the first team he’s seen his team win over two legs against
Benidorm, Atlètico Madrid, Espanyol, Mallorca and Cultural Leonesa. In the Champions League his
teams have overcome Wisla Cracow, Olympic Lyon, Bayern Munich and Chelsea and they also beat Bilbao
in the two legged Spanish Super Cup.
...and four finals
Barca have yet to lose a final under Guardiola, having beaten Bilbao in Valencia, Manchester
United in Rome, Shaktar in Monaco and Estudiantes in Abu Dhabi.