Guardiola said that match, which had hinged on a Ramires goal on 45 minutes and a Lionel Messi penalty miss after the break, had convinced him he could no longer continue at the club with which he had made his name.
“That was a moment of great sadness — as if suddenly someone had switched the floodlights off,” he told the Audi Annual Report in one of his rare interviews. “We were better than our opponents but in the second leg conceded an unnecessary goal and the next thing we knew we were out of the competition.
“That was a very hard defeat for me. I had the feeling that I was no longer able to reach my team, and if you can no longer reach your players then it is time to move on.”