Manchester City host Real Madrid in the first leg of their semi-final tie of the Champions League tonight. City manager Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti, who is in his second spell with Los Blancos, have plenty of history against each other.
Both sides sit at the top of their respective leagues, with Ancelotti being on the brink of winning his first La Liga title. If he accomplishes that, he will have won all of the top five leagues in Europe as a manager.
Both Guardiola and Ancelotti have managed Bayern Munich in the past and are both Premier League winners. They have been in the dugout against each other on several occasions. But how exactly do the stats line up when they have been up against each other?
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So far Guardiola and Ancelotti have come up against each other six times, with Pep winning four and Carlo winning twice.
However even though the City manager has won a two-thirds of their battles, Ancelotti’s wins hold more significance for tonight’s clash as they came in the Champions League.
In 2014, when Ancelotti’s Real Madrid side came up against Pep’s Bayern side in the semi-final, over the two legs Madrid beat Munich 5-0, with a 4-0 win coming at the Allianz Arena. Los Blancos went on to win their tenth European title that year.
The other times the two managers have come up against each other was when Ancelotti was in charge of Everton.
In the three Premier League games they have faced each other, Pep and City won all three with an aggregate score of 10-2.
City also knocked Everton out of the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage in 2021 with a 2-0 win over the Toffees at Goodison Park.
When compared by their time at Bayern Munich, Pep once again has the superior record, both managers enjoyed success but neither lifted the Champions League with current German champions.
Guardiola managed 161 games in all competitions, with a win percentage of 77% whilst the Italian only took charge of 60 games and had a win percentage of 72%.
Over the course of their whole career as a manager, Ancelotti has managed considerably more games (1,174 - 746), Pep has the better win percentage over the span of their managerial careers (74% to 59%) but it’s hard to argue against the greatness of Ancelotti and the consistency over his career.
Tonight promises to be a mouth-watering tactical encounter and it will be interesting to see how Real Madrid set up at the Etihad knowing that away goals are not a factor anymore, and how will Pep approach tonight's game?
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