Pep Guardiola will face Real Madrid for the 24th time in his managerial career when his Manchester City side travel to the Santiago Bernabeu for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night.
The 53-year-old successfully steered the Citizens to Champions League glory for the first time in their history last season after beating Inter Milan 1-0 in the final.
Man City have made a perfect start to the defence of their European crown as they have won each of their first eight games in this season's competition, including six victories out of six in the group stage and a 6-2 aggregate win over Copenhagen in the last 16.
Guardiola and co will renew acquaintances with 14-time European champions Real Madrid in the last eight, and ahead of the first leg in Spain, Sports Mole takes a closer look at Guardiola's managerial record against Los Blancos.
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In his 16 years as a senior manager, Guardiola has locked horns with Real Madrid on 23 occasions in all competitions, boasting a record of 13 victories, five draws and five defeats; only against Arsenal (30), Chelsea (27) and Manchester United (25) has he faced the same opponent on more occasions in his coaching career.
Fifteen of his 23 encounters with Real Madrid have been as Barcelona manager, while he has also managed six games in charge of current club Man City and two as head coach of German giants Bayern Munich.
December 2008 was the first time that Guardiola butted heads with Real, with his Barca side securing a 2-0 home victory in La Liga thanks to two goals scored by Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi in the final 10 minutes.
Guardiola won his first five meetings against Los Blancos, with a 6-2 away victory in May 2009 and a thumping 5-0 home triumph in November 2010 the most eye-catching results for Barcelona during this run.
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The El Clasico took place a total of seven times across all competitions in 2011 between Guardiola's Barca and Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid, with the former winning three, drawing three and losing one.
A 1-1 draw in La Liga at the Bernabeu on April 16 was followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat – Guardiola's first against Real – in the Copa del Rey final just four days later, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the decisive goal after extra time.
Guardiola then gained revenge over Real in the next two weeks as he led Barca to a 3-2 aggregate win in the Champions League semi-finals, following up a 2-0 first-leg victory at Camp Nou with a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at the Bernabeu. Barcelona went on to lift their fourth European title after beating Man United 3-1 in the final at Wembley.
In August of the following season (still in 2011), Guardiola's men sealed a 5-4 aggregate victory over Los Blancos in the Supercopa final, a contest in which Messi score three of Barca's five goals, before the Catalan giants secured a 3-1 La Liga win away from home in December.
Just a month later in 2012, Barcelona edged past Real 4-3 on aggregate in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals, and Guardiola's men went on to win that competition, but Los Blancos got their revenge in April as they claimed a 2-1 victory at Camp Nou, condemning the Catalan club to just their third top-flight loss of the season before winning the title with 100 points, nine clear of Barca in second place.
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That defeat was the last time that Guardiola faced Real Madrid as Barcelona manager, before he took a year-long sabbatical ahead of making the move to Bayern Munich in 2013.
Bayern cruised to the 2013-14 Bundesliga title in Guardiola's first season at the helm, but they were unable to transfer their formidable league form to the Champions League when they locked horns with Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid at the semi-final stage.
Guardiola's side suffered a humbling 5-0 aggregate defeat to the Spanish giants, including a 4-0 home defeat in the second leg – Bayern's joint-heaviest defeat in Champions League history and Guardiola's joint-heaviest of his managerial career to date.
Six years passed before the Catalan boss renews acquaintances with Real, this time as Man City manager in the last 16 of the 2019-20 Champions League. The Citizens beat Zinedine Zidane's men 4-2 on aggregate, including a memorable 2-1 first-leg triumph in Madrid – their first-ever at the Bernabeu.
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Two years later, Man City and Real Madrid met again, this time in the semi-finals, for what turned out to be one of the most thrilling two-legged showdowns in Champions League history. After losing 4-3 to City in the first leg at the Etihad, Real snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the reverse fixture as Rodrygo scored two late goals to send the tie into extra time, before Karim Benzema's penalty sealed a 6-5 aggregate win.
Both Guardiola and Man City would get their revenge, though, and did so in impressive fashion at the same stage of last season's competition, following up a 1-1 first-leg draw in Spain with one of their greatest ever performance in a comprehensive 4-0 second-leg triumph at the Etihad – Real's joint-heaviest Champions League defeat.
Guardiola enters Tuesday's contest having lost only one of his last eight meetings with Ancelotti, all of which have been in charge of Man City, and victory for the Catalan in the first leg would be his 14th as a manager against Real Madrid; only against Arsenal (20), Burnley (17), Man United (15), Chelsea and West Ham United (both 14) has he won more games against the same opponent.
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Oliver Thomas
