Pep Guardiola has just achieved another memorable milestone when he won his 400th victory as Manchester City head coach in all competitions.
Man City defeated Galatasaray 2-0 at the Etihad thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki in the first 30 minutes of the match, thereby advancing to the Champions League round of 16.
Guardiola soon became Man City's most successful coach in history, with more wins in all competitions than any previous coach of the club. The latest victory means he has had more than 180 wins with Man City compared to any other coach, surpassing Les McDowall (1950-1963) in the list.
This is Guardiola's 64th victory with Man City in the UEFA Champions League. Only Alex Ferguson at Manchester United (102) and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal (83) have won more victories in this tournament as coaches of a single English team.
The victory over Galatasaray also raised Guardiola's total number of wins as coach in the Champions League to 117, helping him to be only 6 matches behind Carlo Ancelotti's record (124).
Guardiola also broke the record as the coach to achieve 400 wins in official matches fastest in English football history when leading a top club.
With this milestone after only 569 matches in England, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach has surpassed Wenger's previous record, who achieved 400 wins in official matches at Arsenal after 696 matches - 127 matches faster than the French strategist.
Galatasaray became the 87th team that Guardiola and Man City have defeated since he was appointed in the summer of 2016. He has won the most against West Ham and Burnley in all competitions (both 18 matches), while only losing to 6 clubs he has faced as City's coach: Lyon (3 matches), Celtic (2 matches), Al Hilal, Bayer Leverkusen, Wigan Athletic and Bodo/Glimt.
After Man City completed their mission with a 2-0 victory over Galatasaray, the whole team stayed in the dressing room to watch the final minutes of Benfica's match against Real Madrid in Lisbon.
Guardiola revealed that he and his students were really panicked when they witnessed Jose Mourinho directing goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin to participate in the attack in the 90+8 minute, when Benfica was leading 3-2.
We were all there and didn't know Benfica had to score more goals to advance. When we saw the goalkeeper push up, we exclaimed why he pushed so high. Because if Real Madrid steals the ball and equalizes 3-3, Man City will be knocked out of the top 8" - the Spanish captain said.
However, Mourinho's gamble was a complete success when Trubin headed to seal the score 4-2. This result not only helped Benfica squeeze through the narrow door to play in the play-offs, but also preserved 8th place for Man City, helping them avoid having to play two risky play-off matches in February.
