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The Manchester City boss claimed a third win on the trot against the Bayern Munich trainer, dismissing claims the German tactician had his number in 2021.
Bayern Munich vs Manchester City was already narrative-laden when the draws were made in March, with Pep Guardiola facing the club he managed for three years from 2013 to 2016.
However, a change of head coach in Bavaria added extra intrigue to the narrative of a European heavyweight drawing a club seeking its first-ever Champions League title.
Thomas Tuchel surprisingly rocked up at Die Bayern in late March, six months after he was jettisoned at Chelsea, given the task of navigating the rest of the season at FC Hollywood.
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Many considered the dismissal of Julian Nagelsmann to be cruel because they were just a point behind Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, still in the DFB Pokal and with a European tie against the Cityzens to look forward to.
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23:54 - 24.03.2023
BUNDESLIGA Bayern chiefs reveal the real reasons for Nagelsmann sacking
Bayern Munich chiefs have revealed the real reasons for manager Julian Nagelsmann's departure
Circa a fortnight into Tuchel’s reign, that decision not to wait until the end of the campaign to assess Nagelsmann already looks ill-advised.
Bayern are back on top in the top flight, but elimination in the cup by Freiburg and a 3-0 beatdown by Guardiola on Tuesday night have given ammunition to observers who believed the young head coach was dismissed too quickly.
The latter, in particular, has probably also put paid to talk that Tuchel has Guardiola’s number. A trio of wins in six weeks for the German tactician culminated in that 2021 Champions League success in Porto, with those triumphs thought to have turned the tide in an otherwise one-sided rivalry.
Guardiola and Tuchel faced off in the Bundesliga, with the Spaniard in charge of Bayern and the former Chelsea boss at the helm in Mainz.
While FCB’s 4-1 and 2-0 successes over the 05ers in 2013-14 imply it was straightforward, the Carnival Club went 1-0 up at the Allianz Arena just before half-time before a second-half turnaround brought about a comfortable victory.
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In the reverse fixture, Mainz held Bayern until two late Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gotze goals in the final 10 minutes saw the Bundesliga giants secure maximum points.
A 5-1 hammering when he crossed over to Borussia Dortmund was a kick in the teeth, but that was the last time BVB conceded to the Bavarians in 2015-16, holding Guardiola’s dominant team to draws at Signal Iduna Park and the Pokal final.
Tuchel did not get the rub of the green in that decider, with penalty failures from Sven Bender and Sokratis Papastathopoulos inflicting shootout pain for the Krumbach-born manager.
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He had faced Guardiola five times and lost four (including penalty shootouts), so the run of three victories for the former Paris Saint-Germain boss in 2021 was anomalous, even if they came in a five-month period where the erstwhile Dortmund head coach picked up wins over Jose Mourinho, Diego Simeone, Jurgen Klopp and Zinedine Zidane.
City’s motivation to right the wrongs of those three losses to Chelsea was evident in the subsequent encounter between the clubs in September 2021. It ended 1-0 in favour of the Manchester outfit, but the away side’s work ethic and dominance at Stamford Bridge caused Tuchel to suggest his team lost belief in their game plan.
Another 1-0 loss at the Etihad Stadium — a rather forgettable match in mid-January 2022 — was decided by a long-range Kevin De Bruyne goal, even though it could have turned out differently had Romelu Lukaku buried a one-on-one just after the break.
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23:09 - 11.04.2023
'The result does not tell the story of the match' — Thomas Tuchel
Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel speaks after the defeat to Manchester City.
Tuchel’s dismissal in September 2022 meant he was no longer at the club when the Blues faced Guardiola’s troops at the turn of the year, so he has had to wait over a year for his 11th meeting with the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager.
However, that did not produce the desired result, with a 3-0 beatdown in Manchester inflicting the German’s seventh loss against the two-time Champions League winner.
Since the 1-0 win in Porto, Tuchel’s teams have conceded five goals in three games without scoring. Perhaps worryingly, they have accumulated Expected Goals (xG) of 1.3 and conceded Expected Goals against (xGA) of 4.6.
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Individual mistakes, with Dayot Upamecano especially culpable, cost them on Tuesday, but that would be the simplistic viewpoint as it could have been more but for Yann Sommer, who made no less than six saves.
The feeling previously in the Tuchel v Guardiola rivalry suggested that the German seldom went toe-to-toe with the three-time Bundesliga winner with sides possessing equal technical quality, ergo the lopsided outcomes for the Spaniard.
While the Bayern job answered that and theoretically put both managers on equal footing, it comes with the caveat that Tuchel only took the job in late March and has not built momentum in performances and results in Bavaria as he had done at Stamford Bridge before facing the Manchester City boss in 2021.
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Maybe he was fighting a losing battle. Maybe Nagelsmann should have been allowed to finish the season at the Allianz Arena.
Guardiola will not care after a ninth straight victory for his rampant Cityzens. The City boss can rest easy.
Tuchel may not have that luxury: the German may have stolen the spotlight two years back, but the Spaniard has regained supremacy in this rivalry and then some.
23:58 - 11.04.2023
Guardiola hails star as ‘one of the best ever’ after dazzling Bayern display
Guardiola has hailed his star midfielder as one of the best players he has ever coached after a brilliant display against Bayern Munich
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