The last decade and a half was dominated by two very distinct styles of football.
Pep Guardiola’s Tiki-taka and Jurgen Klopp’s Heavy Metal Gegenpressing have had the most direct impact on football philosophy.
Most of the up-and-coming managers like Mikel Arteta, Roberto De Zerbi, and Xabi Alonso have all based their philosophies on either Klopp or Guardiola’s style.
Even though these coaches came to the peak of their fame in England, the rivalry started way before the Spaniard’s arrival at Manchester City in August of 2016.
Their rivalry began when Guardiola was brought on as the new Bayern Munich manager in June, 2013 to break the dominance of Klopp’s “heavy metal football” at Borussia Dortmund.
Their head-to-head record is astonishingly marginal.
Both managers tried their hardest to outfox one other which made the beautiful game all the more entertaining for the audience to watch.
In two years at German football, Klopp and Guardiola faced each other a total of eight times where they both won four encounters apiece.
Guardiola won three and lost one in the Bundesliga while the German was victorious on three occasions out of four in domestic competitions, losing the other.
Their rivalry peaked in England as both managers evolved their games to new heights and started to dominate English Football.
In the last six years, no team could break their dominance and really challenge for the title except for Arsenal last year.
City claimed five titles and Liverpool one during this period.
The list of titles does not really tell the full story of their rivalry as Klopp tasted many famous victories over Guardiola during this time, including the historic Champions League semi-final in 2017/18 season where Liverpool beat City 5-1 on aggregate.
Guardiola also enjoyed memorable wins over Klopp, like the 4-1 rout in the Premier League last year and 4-1 triumph in February 2021 as City went on to win the league on both occasions.
Their rivalry finally came to an end, for a while at least, after Klopp announced that he will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of this season.
In their fierce rivalry, these two masterminds locked horns with each other for a total of 30 times with Guardiola winning 11, drawing seven, and losing 12 games to Klopp.
Guardiola only half joked when he said “I will sleep better” upon hearing Klopp’s imminent departure.
After all, Klopp is the only manager to win more matches against Guardiola.
Their last dance was played at Anfield in front of the Kop.
The thrilling bout ended in a 1-1 draw; only adding to the long list of enthralling clashes.
There have not been many rivalries that changed football philosophy as much as Klopp-Guardiola and the fans around the globe will surely miss the heated matches they always produced, for the time being at least.
- Sayed Hossain Shanto is an intern in DT Sports team