LONDON • Pep Guardiola starts his latest bid to lead Manchester City to Champions League glory with the shadows of past failures casting doubt on his ability to secure that elusive European title again.
City host Porto in their opening Group C match today with Guardiola's shortcomings in the tournament weighing heavily on both the Spanish boss and his Premier League club.
Despite all their domestic success in recent years, they have never gone beyond the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference yesterday, the City manager was cautious when asked about his side's chances today.
He said: "Considering what happened in previous seasons, we are not allowed to dream much higher in terms of expectations.
"But we need to win tomorrow, home games are so important. After we will see how the team grow.
"We are still a little bit away from where we want to be but Aleks Zinchenko is back and many players are back in good condition - (Ilkay) Gundogan, Bernardo (Silva) and Joao (Cancelo) - and Gabriel (Jesus), Kevin (de Bruyne) and Aymeric (Laporte) are expected back in the next weeks.
"It depends on our performance and we will see what happens."
Since he won the Champions League as Barcelona boss for the second time in 2011, Guardiola has failed to return to the final of Europe's elite club competition.
That nine-year drought includes four years of frustration since he took charge at City in 2016.
In that time, he has seen City beaten by Monaco in the last 16 and Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon in the quarter-finals.
He also lost in three semi-finals during his time at Bayern Munich before moving to City.
Last season's shock 3-1 defeat against Lyon in Lisbon was especially galling as City were heavy favourites against the French side.
Guardiola deserved a large portion of the blame for that letdown after his tactical tinkering appeared to unsettle his players and did nothing to tilt the tie in City's favour.
For now though, he will focus on Porto's visit to Manchester and he believes that the Portuguese side are not to be underestimated.
"Porto are one of the strongest teams in Portugal, their mentality is to win every single weekend. Their physicality is strong," he said.
"It will be a tough game. I know how difficult it will be but it will be a good challenge for us."
There have already been some worrying signs in the league this season as they were thrashed 5-2 by Leicester, while Saturday's 1-0 win over Arsenal was far from convincing.
Significantly, Guardiola was able to welcome back City's record goalscorer Sergio Aguero last weekend for his first appearance in four months after knee surgery.
City have lacked a cutting edge in Aguero's absence and Guardiola's hopes of a serious Champions League challenge hinge on the Argentinian striker staying fit.
"The important thing is that Sergio comes back in good physical condition, starts to get his rhythm, doesn't get more injuries and plays good," said the manager.
"We know what he means for us, we know how we appreciate him, but now he has to show like every one of us, me first, that we deserve to continue here and playing good and winning games."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MAN CITY V PORTO
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