Can Manchester City get out of their own way in Europe?

The Premier League’s runaway leaders have found things much tougher going in the Champions League of late. Can they turn the tide and reach the semi-finals this time around?

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

When you think of Pep Guardiola, you certainly don't think of failure.

Three Premier League titles - and a fourth in the post, league crowns in Spain and Germany too as well as two Champions League wins in charge of Barcelona will see the Spaniard rightly remembered as one of the great managers of his generation.

But it is in Europe, on football's biggest of all stages, where that imperious pedigree appears to have lost some of its shine of late.

He hasn't lifted the famous big-eared trophy since way back in 2012. He never won it at Bayern Munich while at Manchester City he and they have never advanced beyond the last eight.

It is that same hurdle that they now sit, with a second leg against Borussia Dortmund between them and a place in the final four.

They hold a 2-1 lead, courtesy of Phil Foden's last-gasp winner at the Etihad a week ago, but Marco Reus' away goal looms large and has everyone - even Pep - looking over their shoulder.

Their recent record in Europe's most prestigious competition certainly warrants it. While they have swept away all before them back home, success on the continent has proven far more elusive.

Indeed, City under Guardiola have conceded 19 goals in their last four exits - six to Monaco, five to Liverpool and four to Spurs, before shipping three more against Lyon on their way to tumbling out of Uefa's hastily rearranged conclusion to the tournament in Lisbon back in August.

"Now is the time to make another step, everyone wants it," Guardiola said ahead of Wednesday's game. "The players first because the were sad when we were not able to go to the semi-finals.

"Tomorrow is another opportunity to prove ourselves. Nobody is going to give it to us - we have to win it, we have to do it.

"If we are good or don't make mistakes, like we did against Lyon, we are going to do it. We will see but I'm so excited to travel to Germany, and for all the players and the club, to try to do it."

It is not just the manager who is feeling the pressure either, the players are too.

Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan is a veteran of those painful defeats and is eager to right the wrongs.

"For me it's important to take the next step, not just the experiences we had in the last few years, but also I have expectations of myself and teammates and I know we have a great team and are capable of going into the semi-finals," he said.

"We should have been there earlier in the last few seasons but we were lacking something, individual mistakes which led to goals - and it's tough."

Those individual mistakes have often been born out of a more collective failure, however, with Guardiola in particular erring where he is so often faultless and failing to get his team's approach right when it really matters most.

The defeat to Lyon was a case in point where a hitherto rarely used back three was deployed in an attempt to match up with the French side, only for it to spectacularly backfire as the team far more used to playing that system ruthlessly exposed City's lack of experience in doing so.

Pep Guardiola talks to Manchester City players Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

So have City - a team 11 points clear on the road to regaining their Premier League crown - learned their lesson?

"If we win the people will say yes, if we lose people will say no," Guardiola added. "Right now I honestly don’t know. People forget that they are human beings and have feelings. Situations happen. We know what we have to do: do what we’ve done all season, play a game, analyse and be ready and play.

"If we want to win we have to deserve it and go for it, and that’s going to happen in the way we’ve done many times this season effectively. Sometimes it wasn't good but the intention was always there and we are going to do it again tomorrow.

"Of course you have to control your emotions but sometimes you need emotions in a good way to win this type of game. I didn't say anything special but we go there to win the game and each one has to try to be a leader on the pitch.

"When the guy who feels comfortable during the game to take responsibility to be more involved in the game, for the guys who are more nervous or quiet do your job, play simple and be calm and the rest will come, and maybe in five minutes you will be ready to make a good performance again.

"We need 11 players and maybe substitutions again and we will try to do it. It is a football game where we start 2-1. I'm sure they have a chance because the last 26 or 27 games they scored a goal so what we have to do is score our goals and to do that we need to play our game and be effective up front."

Guardiola will certainly hope they are. These same questions won’t go away if they aren’t.