Pep Guardiola will face Real Madrid for the 20th time in his managerial career when his Manchester City side play host at the Etihad Stadium for the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night.
The 51-year-old is taking his team into the last four after edging past Real's rivals Atletico Madrid 1-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.
The Catalan boss has had plenty of memorable encounters with Los Blancos over his near 15-year managerial career, particularly during his reign at Camp Nou.
Ahead of Tuesday's eagerly-anticipated first leg, Sports Mole takes a closer look at Guardiola's managerial record against Real Madrid.
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Guardiola has faced Real Madrid a total of 19 times as a manager, boasting a record of 11 victories, four draws and four defeats; only against Chelsea (21) and Manchester United (20) has he locked horns with the same opponent on more occasions in his entire career.
Fifteen of his 19 encounters with Los Blancos have been as Barcelona boss, while he has also managed two games each for German giants Bayern Munich and his current club Man City.
Guardiola's first-ever meeting with Real was back in December 2008 when his Barcelona side secured a 2-0 La Liga win on home soil, thanks to two goals in the final 10 minutes from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi.
The Spaniard, in fact, won his first five games against Los Blancos, with a 6-2 away victory in May 2009 and a 5-0 thrashing in November 2010 the most eye-catching results for Barca during this run.
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In 2011, Guardiola faced Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid side a total of seven times across all competitions, winning three, drawing three and losing once. A 1-1 La Liga draw at the Santiago Bernabeu on April 16 was followed by a slender 1-0 defeat – Guardiola's first against Real – in the Copa del Rey final just four days later, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the only goal after extra time.
The next two weeks saw Guardiola's Barca side lock horns with Real Madrid over two legs in the Champions League semi-finals, with the Catalan outfit winning 2-0 in the first leg before drawing the reverse fixture 1-1 at the Bernabeu. Barcelona went on to beat Man United 3-1 at Wembley in the final, which is still Guardiola's last success in the Champions League to date.
In August of the following season (still in 2011) Guardiola's men secured a 5-4 aggregate win over Los Blancos in the Supercopa final, a tie which saw Messi score three of Barca's five goals, before claiming a 3-1 league victory away from home in December.
Just a month later in 2012, Barca edged past Real 4-3 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey – a competition Guardiola's men went on to win – but Real got their revenge in April as they won 2-1 at Camp Nou to condemn the Catalan club to just their third La Liga defeat of the season before winning the title with 100 points, nine clear of Barca in second place.
That defeat proved to be the last encounter Guardiola had with Real as Barcelona boss, as he took a year-long sabbatical before joining Bayern Munich in 2013.
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While the Bavarian outfit were cruising to the Bundesliga title in the 2013-14 season, they were unable to replicate their impressive league form in the Champions League semis against Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid.
Guardiola's men lost 5-0 on aggregate in the last four, including a 4-0 second-leg defeat in Germany, which is still the joint-heaviest defeat of his managerial career to date and one the Spaniard described at the time as his worst in the dugout.
Guardiola then had to wait six years before locking horns again with Real, this time as manager of Man City in the last 16 of the 2019-20 Champions League.
The Citizens claimed a memorable 2-1 first-leg victory against Zinedine Zidane's side at the Bernabeu, with Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne both on the scoresheet, before securing another win by the same scoreline in the reverse fixture, with Jesus and Raheem Sterling finding the net at the Etihad. Karim Benzema scored in both legs but he was unable to help Los Blancos edge past City on that occasion.
Victory for Guardiola on Tuesday would be his 12th as a manager against Real Madrid; only against Arsenal (17) and Burnley (14) has the Spaniard won more games against the same opponent.
Oliver Thomas
