Pep Guardiola vs Carlo Ancelotti: How many times have they met and who has won more?
Manchester City and Real Madrid will play again in the Champions League, with Guardiola and Ancelotti colliding on the benches. Who has the upper hand?
The Champions League is back with some of the most exciting quarterfinals in the tournament’s history. All four ties promise to be very close and full of action, but there’s probably one that stands out from the rest, the one opposing Manchester City and Real Madrid.
The current UCL titleholders are the favorites against Los Blancos and also to go all the way in the competition and defend their title, while the Spanish giants are looking for vendetta after being eliminated from the semifinals last year by the English club.
City managed to keep last season’s roster and had some additions in the summer, while Real lost their star forward Karim Benzema, although the signing of Jude Bellingham has been one of the best ones the club has made over the last years.
Many believe that the winner of this tie will make it to the final and probably win the trophy, which reflects the importance of this tie. City have a great squad and are the defending champions, but Real Madrid have won the tournament on 14 occasions and are used to show up when most needed in the UCL.
Guardiola vs Ancelotti: who has the upper hand?
But besides the match between City and Real, there will be another big clash on the benches, as Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti will meet again in the most prestigious European competition,
Last year, the Catalan coach came out on top with his tactics at Estadio Bernabéu (1-1) and his team was able to close the tie at Etihad Stadium comfortably (4-0) to get the ticket to the final against Inter Milan.
However, both men have met quite a few times, when Guardiola was also in charge of Bayern Munich and the Italian took Real’s reigns for the first time and coached Everton.
They have faced each other as coaches eight times, with the Santpedor native emerging victorious in five. Four wins took place when Guardiola was in charge of City and Ancelotti was the Everton coach, while Carlo holds the edge as Real Madrid coach (3-1).
The biggest win for Ancelotti was in the 2013-14 Champions League semifinals when Real Madrid thrashed Bayern 0-4, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos scoring twice, while Guardiola’s widest victory over Ancelotti was when Manchester City crushed Everton 5-0 in the 2020-21 Premier League campaign.