REVEALED: Pep Guardiola Set To Beat Louis Van Gaal’s Champions League Record
Reuters / Lee Smith
Pep Guardiola will become only the 29th manager to reach the 100 match milestone in UEFA club competitions on Wednesday. Guardiola’s Manchester City will take on Monaco in the Champions League.
He will join an elite group of managers which includes Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, and Arsene Wenger among others. The Spaniard’s 99 games while in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City have yielded 61 wins and 23 draws.
This of course, doesn’t include Barcelona’s win against Bayern in the last eight of the 2008-09 edition of the Champions League. Tito Vilanova was in charge then, with Pep banned from the touchline.
Reuters / Carl Recine
Another former Barcelona coach, Louis Van Gaal, is on top of a unique list among these elite managers. The Dutchman entered the club with 61 wins, 22 draws and 17 losses. He had managed Ajax and Barcelona by then.
This means that Guardiola will enter the club with the best record among the 29, irrespective of Wednesday’s result. Considering that Van Gaal won both the Champions League, and the UEFA Super Cup, this is a remarkable feat.
Interestingly, Guardiola played under Van Gaal at Barcelona. He went on to emulate him as manager of Barcelona. Their choices after Barcelona are interesting though. While Van Gaal coached Manchester United, Pep is now the boss at rivals Manchester City.
