Pep Guardiola has said that the “biggest challenge” of his coaching career was Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool, not Real Madrid, after his Manchester City lost 5-1 on aggregate to the Spanish side in the Champions League round of 16.
Vinícius Júnior scored twice in Manchester to see Madrid win 2-1 in the second leg, after a Federico Valverde hat trick gave the LaLiga giants a 3-0 victory at the Bernabéu a week earlier.
It’s the third consecutive season that Guardiola’s City have been eliminated by the 15-time European champions, but speaking in his post-match news conference, the Catalan coach denied that Madrid have been his greatest rivals.
“No, my biggest challenge was Jürgen Klopp with Liverpool, in these years here,” Guardiola told a Spanish journalist. “You were in Spain, you didn’t realise what that competition was.”
“It’s been a good learning experience for the club, because this is a club that 12 or 13 years ago was never in Europe. Playing so many times against Real Madrid, with the generation we’ve had, we’ve done it.
“They’ve won, we’ve won. The numbers are similar, they’ve knocked us out more than we have them. But they know how we’ve played.”
Guardiola has faced Madrid 30 times throughout his career, first during his four years with Barcelona in LaLiga, and then in European competitions with Bayern Munich and City.
The coach’s record against Madrid in that time is 14 wins, 6 draws, and 10 losses.
However, in recent years, Madrid have eliminated City from the Champions League in 2022, 2024, 2025 and now 2026.
In 2023, Guardiola’s City beat Madrid in the semifinals on their way to completing a historic treble. Guardiola’s head-to-head record against Klopp was well-matched.
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During their time together in the Bundesliga, they played eight times, with four wins for Guardiola, three for Klopp, and one draw.
In the Premier League, Klopp narrowly came out on top, winning eight matches, losing six, and drawing eight.
However, while both coaches were in charge of City and Liverpool, Guardiola won six titles, compared to Klopp’s one.
Defender Trent Alexander-Arnold was a key part of those Liverpool sides, before joining Madrid last summer.
“It was nice to win here, to get one over on them,” he told Prime Video Sport.
“They’ve snatched a lot of Premier League medals away from me and Liverpool. I’ve always enjoyed playing here, I’ve always felt like they’re the biggest games, City are a top club. Our mentality was to come here and win.”
Madrid will play either Bayern Munich or Atalanta in the quarterfinals — with Bayern winning the first leg 6-1 — while City must now prepare for Sunday’s EFL Cup final with Arsenal.
