London: After a series of painful Champions League failures, Pep Guardiola is on a mission to seal his Manchester City legacy by finally getting his hands on the trophy again. City start their latest bid to win the club's first European Cup with a trip to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Group C opener on Wednesday. The long flight to the Ukraine will give Guardiola plenty of time to ponder his curious streak of Champions League flops in recent years.

Guardiola has conquered English football spectacularly after winning the last two Premier League titles, the first in record-breaking fashion and the second as part of an unprecedented domestic treble last season. Yet the Champions League has proved impossible for Guardiola to master since he arrived at the Etihad Stadium. In fact, Europe's elite club competition has been a cruel mistress for Guardiola for most of the last decade, with a series of frustrating exits during his spells in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City. Guardiola first won the Champions League as a manager in 2009 with Barcelona.