Unbeaten in Europe for five years! How Man City turned the Etihad Stadium into a fortress

The last time City failed to win at home was, bizarrely, against Frank Lampard's Everton back in December. Their last defeat at home was against Brentford in November. But their last home defeat in the Champions League was all the way back in September 2018, when they were beaten 2-1 by Lyon.

Since then, they have played 25 matches at home in Europe's top competition and won 23 of them, drawing just twice. Both draws were matches City had little motivation to win, a 0-0 in the last-16 second leg against Sporting CP last season - having won the first leg 5-0 - and a 1-1 against Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2019-20 group stage, when Guardiola's side had already qualified for the knockout rounds.

In those 25 matches, in which they have a 92 percent win rate, they have scored 81 times and conceded just 18. Their seamless home record puts other European heavyweights to shame. Real Madrid have lost six home games in the Champions League since September 2018, while Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain have lost five, Barcelona four and Bayern Munich two.

The fact that City have not been able to win a Champions League under Guardiola is nothing to do with their results at home, it is in spite of their tremendous record there.

In the five times City have failed to reach the final under the Catalan, four of their eliminations have come down to their away results: the 3-1 defeat at Monaco, the 1-0 loss at Tottenham, the 3-1 defeat after extra-time at Real Madrid and the 3-1 loss against Lyon in Lisbon due to coronavirus restrictions.

It is true that City have not always had the most enthusiastic attitude towards the Champions League. The team did not make their debut in the competition until 2011 and they failed to get out of the group stage in their first two years in it, when Roberto Mancini was in charge.

The more experienced they became in Europe, the better they performed, and they have reached the knockout stages every year since the 2013-14 season. But there was still a level of apathy towards the competition, and City rarely sold out their stadium for Champions League matches, particularly in the group stage.

City fans have also booed the Champions League anthem for as long as they have been in it. The booing began as a response to Mario Balotelli being racially abused by Porto fans in a Champions League game in 2011, but became most prominent after City were found guilty by UEFA of breaching Financial Fair Play rules.

The whistling of the anthem intensified when UEFA investigated the club again in 2019 for circumventing FFP following the publication of documents by Football Leaks.

Guardiola, who had won the Champions League twice with Barcelona and reached the semi-final stage seven years in a row before joining City in 2016, initially found it hard to understand fans' indifference to a competition he was deeply immersed in.

After his first Champions League match as City coach against Borussia Monchengladbach, which only 30,000 fans attended, Guardiola told City fans to "forget what has happened in the past". And in the 2018-19 season, when City got off to a difficult start in the group stage after that surprise defeat to Lyon, he urged the fans to show more enthusiasm for the Champions League and support the team more in home matches.

“We have to be pushed by everyone surrounding Manchester City that we have to win it – and we still don’t have that feeling from the fans,” he said. “I feel we’re a really good team, but you still need something special to win the Champions League and still I don’t feel it. But every year we’ll get closer and sooner or later it’s going to happen."

These comments did not go down well with City fans, but they were most incensed when he criticised the low attendance for the 6-3 win over RB Leipzig in last season's group stage, when 38,000 supporters made it into the Etihad, which holds 54,000.

After the match, Guardiola told the fans to come out in force for their next league match, against Southampton. He said: “I would like more people to come to the next game on Saturday. We will need the people next Saturday, please, because we will be tired. I invite all our people to come next Saturday, 3pm, and watch the game."

The manager's words might have sounded innocuous but they touched a nerve with supporters, who interpreted them as questioning City fans' commitment and handing ammunition to the club's rivals.

Guardiola seems to have learned from that incident and his relationship with the fans seems to have healed. "We've got Guardiola" is one of the most common chants at City games, and the manager was full of praise for the way the fans have taken to the Champions League.

"Of course they embrace it, they are used to playing it and arriving at the last stages, it is sold out and we’ll try to do a good game," he said Tuesday's pre-match press conference ahead of the meeting with Madrid. "I know the fans will be close to us, they know what we’ve done, they will not leave us alone, they will in the bad moments they will be with us. Our game will dictate what we have to do, but in the bad moments they will be there."

City had no problems selling out the quarter-final first leg against Bayern, and before the match thousands of fans braved the rain to wait outside and greet the team bus, the air thick with blue smoke. Similar scenes are expected on Wednesday evening.

There was one flashpoint this season, when Guardiola questioned the supporters as well as the players after their 4-2 comeback win over Tottenham in January.

In an extraordinary rant following a poor first-half display in which they conceded two goals, Guardiola accused City of being "a happy flowers team". He then turned his ire on the fans, who had booed the players off at half-time.

"They are silent for 45 minutes. They booed because we were losing but it’s the same like our team, maybe we our so comfortable winning four titles in five years," he said. "I want my fans back Not my away fans because my away fans are the best, but my fans here for every corner and every action and support it because we cannot expect anything. I want a reaction from all the club, all the organisation, the players, the staff, everyone."

A reaction is exactly what Guardiola got. Even though the team lost to Tottenham two weeks later, his side have barely let their guard down since.

Rodri articulated the team's new-found attitude before the semi-final first leg away to Real Madrid, saying they have to act like they are a small team. “You have to have the proper mentality to feel like a small team and fight like a small team — because if you feel something bigger you will be confused," the midfielder said. "That’s why we do it: we feel small, we fight like a small team, run like a small team and then we have top-quality players who deserve everything.”

City might not seem like a small team, with their backing from Abu Dhabi, their big stadium and their ever expanding trophy cabinet. But in the face of increasing antipathy from their rivals, they have generated a pack mentality, an 'us against the world' attitude.

The fans are a huge part of that. A lot of them have lived through City's darkest moments, following the team all the way down to Division Two and back up to the Premier League and the Champions League. They relish their status as the top team in England and want to have the same status in Europe.

Along with a formidable team and an ever demanding coach in Guardiola, they have created the most intimidating stadium on the continent as far as results are concerned. Madrid have been warned.