Champions League is like Kryptonite to powerless Pep

PEP GUARDIOLA and the Champions League go together like Superman and kryptonite.

The closer he gets to it, the more powerless he seems to become.

That’s six seasons in a row now where Manchester City have found a way to fall short in a competition they are equipped to win as much as anyone in Europe.

But it’s also a reminder that the European Cup is the hardest prize of all to land.

For all the success Sir Alex Ferguson delivered to Manchester United, he only won the Champions League twice – once in a penalty shootout and the other was outrageous, last-gasp brinkmanship.

So where does City’s astonishing late collapse in the Bernabeu leave Guardiola?

Well, for a start it means City will finish the season emptyhanded if they don’t win the title.

It would be absolutely astonishing, unbelievable, if a team of so many talents didn’t win anything when they have looked almost unstoppable for most of the campaign.

But it also means Guardiola – for all the nine domestic trophies he’s won at the Etihad so far – still has unfinished business at City.

Across town, they will sneer that he cannot be compared with Fergie or Sir Matt Busby until he lands the holy grail in Europe. To me, the heartbreaking defeat against Real Madrid (above) doesn’t diminish the side Pep has built, or the exquisite football they play, but it was a sobering reminder that a whole season’s work can unravel in two minutes of madness.

Let’s get it straight: As horrible as City’s meltdown was, the tie was really lost in the first leg, where they should have taken a much bigger cushion than a 4-3 lead to defend in Spain.

But it is still incredible to think they led the tie from the second minute at the Etihad until the 90th minute in Madrid... and yet still lost.

People who made Jack Grealish the £100million scapegoat for missing two late chances are barking up the wrong tree. If Ferland Mendy had not cleared one off the line, and Thibaut Courtois not saved the other with a stud, he would have been the hero.

I thought Kevin De Bruyne looked tired, which is not surprising when you cover as much ground as he does, and City seem to have developed too much reliance on Kyle Walker’s pace to dig them out of trouble at the back.

There are question marks about City defensively, but it is hard to be too critical of Guardiola when he has assembled a cast of sublime talents such as Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and De Bruyne to the extent that Grealish and Raheem Sterling are not certain of places in the starting

XI. So as harrowing as it was to go out of the Champions League when they were so close to another final, while Liverpool sailed into their third final in five years, I have to focus on the bigger picture.

Yes, he needs to steer clear of the kryptonite in Europe.

But how could Pep and City be cast as failures if they land a fourth domestic title in five years?