Manuel Neuer saves Romelu Lukaku's decisive penalty of the 2013 European Super Cup final © Getty Images
In this extract from Marti Perarnau's book 'Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich', we go inside the 2013 European Super Cup final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich in Prague. It is yet another meeting for Guardiola with Jose Mourinho. As the match reaches penalties, Guardiola calls upon the experience of Manel Estiarte, an assistant at Bayern and an Olympic champion in water polo...
It's a feverish, tense, agonising final. Bayern equalise 51 seconds after the official 120 minutes have been played. Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson has added one minute for stoppages, and there are nine seconds to go when Javi Martinez, a player who only three days ago was booked in for surgery, only for Pep Guardiola to cancel those plans, scores for Bayern.
Once again, they're going head-to-head with Chelsea in a penalty shoot-out, and everyone's thoughts turn to the Allianz Arena, one year ago. That day the English team beat Bayern in the Champions League final, in a penalty shoot-out. This could be payback time but, given the option, Guardiola wouldn't have wished for penalties. In the last four weeks the men from Munich have scored only three of the five penalties they have taken.
In the middle of all the euphoria Pep steps up to the plate, emotional but icily calm. He calls his people together in one big huddle. Everyone is there: doctors, physios, assistant coaches, players, substitutes and even the injured men, like Bastian Schweinsteiger. This is Pep at his brilliant best. The guy who rises to the big occasions and dazzles his men. Just as everyone is expecting him to mobilise his players with a call to arms of epic proportions, Pep tells them a simple story.
Relaxed and smiling, he pays no heed to the thousands of frenzied supporters around them. Apparently unaffected by the tension, he issues no battle cry, opting instead for an anecdote. About water polo.
"Lads, I don't know how to take penalties myself. I've never taken one in my life. But here's the best penalty taker in the whole world."
And he points to a figure half hidden, right at the back of the huddle.
"I'm talking about Manel [Estiarte]. He was the best water polo player in the world. He took penalties better than anyone. Hundreds of them. Water polo is like football. Only four out of every five penalty kicks hit the target, but Manel put them all away! He is the world expert on penalties."
Pep hasn't just managed to get the player's attention. He has completely changed the expressions on their faces. They had been waiting for war cries and motivational oratory, an adrenalin boost.
What they receive, standing here in the midst of the clamouring, heaving mass of humanity that rocks the stadium, is a simple tale.
Daniel van Buyten and Tom Starke stand just behind Pep in their tracksuits, hugging each other; Doctor Müller-Wohlfhart is beside them. Toni Kroos, Philipp Lahm and Franck Ribéry are right at the front. David Alaba is leaning his elbow on Thomas Müller, also wearing a tracksuit, like Arjen Robben.
Then there's a second circle: Javi Martínez, Xherdan Shaqiri, Dante, Jerome Boateng and Mario Mandžukić; the assistant coaches, Domènec Torrent and Hermann Gerland; Jan Kirchhoff, the substitute; physio Gianni Bianchi; fitness coaches Lorenzo Buenaventura and Andreas Kornmayer; Mario Götze; Claudio Pizarro; Rafinha and Contento. Matthias Sammer and Schweinsteiger are slightly separated from the main group and Manuel Neuer isn't here. He's off getting Toni Tapalovic's advice about the Chelsea penalty takers. Estiarte, too, has stepped back a few metres.
The players are smiling. Silent but relaxed. They're enjoying the tone of this team talk.
"I've learned two things from Manel and his penalties, so listen up. These are the only two things you need to do now. Firstly, make up your mind immediately as to where you're going to put the ball and stick with that decision. I'll say it again. Decide now, and don't change your mind no matter what happens. Secondly, keep telling yourselves that you're going to score. Repeat it a thousand times and don't stop until after you've taken the penalty. Don't worry and don't change your minds."
"What a team talk. Incredible!" Matthias Sammer says later.
But Pep hasn't finished. He gives them his advice and then says: "Lads, there's no list. You can choose whether or not to take one. You choose. You're all going to score anyway, so you decide who's taking them. Who's up for it?"
Alaba is the first to step forward, Kroos lifts his left hand next, followed quickly by Lahm. Pep gives his captain one of his little taps on the cheek. Next, Ribéry adds his name to the list and the coach slaps him encouragingly on the chest. It's Shaqiri's turn after that and he's rewarded with a "Bravo, Shaq!" The players have come up with the list themselves, but what about the order they'll take them in?
"You sort that out. Take them in any order you want. Whatever you're comfortable with. It doesn't matter anyway, because they're all going in."
They decide to take them in the same order they volunteered. The referee indicates that it's time and they all turn away. Pep grabs Ribéry and Lahm, stopping the whole group in their tracks.
"Just one last thing. Don't forget. You've decided where you're putting the ball. Go and do it. And from now until you shoot keep telling yourself, 'It's going in'. With every step you take, say it, 'goal, goal, goal...'"
Of the seven players who had practised on Monday scoring 42 out of 42, only Kroos and Shaqiri are penalty takers today. Müller and Robben have both been substituted. Pizarro started on the substitutes' bench and of course Schweinsteiger is injured. Of the players who had not taken part in the practice session, Alaba, Lahm and Ribéry have been happy to volunteer. All five score. Neuer saves Chelsea's fifth penalty, taken by Romelu Lukaku, and Bayern have won the title that has so far eluded them. Pep has his first trophy with Bayern and his third European Super Cup.
Voted man of the match, Franck Ribéry dedicates the honour to his boss. "I know how much this means to him, his first title. I also know about his old rivalry with Mourinho."
The Portuguese coach has left the pitch without congratulating Guardiola, in stark contrast to the obvious warmth between the two teams.
An hour later,in a corner of the press room in Prague's Eden Stadion, Guardiola and Estiarte chat to a couple of Catalan journalists, Isaac Lluch, of Ara and Ramon Besa of El País. Pep is absolutely radiant.
His eyes are shining with happiness, but above all there is a sense of enormous relief. "The team needed this win. If we hadn't won, I don't know how we would have moved forward."
Pep Guardiola has had Manel Estiarte (right) in his backroom team at both Barcelona and Bayern Munich © Getty Images
