Who has upper hand ahead of title showdown?

The main game is of course scheduled to start not only this weekend in the Premier League, but the Premier League season so far, on Sunday evening.

The said encounter will see Manchester City welcome Liverpool into the federation for what has been widely described as ‘the title decider’, despite a full seven weeks to follow before the campaign concludes late next month.

As things stand, champion City has the least advantage, one point behind Liverpool at the top of the First Division.

This weekend’s visitors to Manchester, though, are Europe’s brightest side at the moment, having racked up 17 wins from their last 18 games in all competitions to put Benfica on the sword in the Champions League during the week.

That would have been good for Luis Diaz! 👊

The former Porto man carries his first bags #UCL A goal for Liverpool to regain the double-goal advantage

A club’s smile says it all! pic.twitter.com/VPpaz89Fot

Football on BT Sport (btsportfootball) April 5 2022

So what will ultimately prove to be the deciding factor in a league match that is set to focus the eyes of the footballing world hard on the exchanges in less than 24 hours?

He is set to play a central role as any other in the final result in Manchester, of course, the managers will be Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.

The Spaniard and the German are widely regarded as two of Europe’s best tacticians of the past decade, and minor tweaks on the part of one of them to get rid of their corresponding figure will likely be decisive this weekend.

On the other hand, before Sunday’s match, which is quickly approaching the top of the table, we discussed today the number 101 in the record of direct confrontations between Klopp and Guardiola, across their managerial career so far.

German record

Germany was the first country where Klopp and Guardiola were forced to test their talents against each other on a consistent basis.

With the former at the helm of Borussia Dortmund, and the current City manager overseeing the proceedings at permanent champion Bayern Munich, the following results were to be expected across eight meetings between the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and DFB Cup.

matches	Guardiola wins	Klopp wins	Draw
8	4	4	0

English record

Since Klopp opted to transfer his talents to England, before Guardiola followed suit a year later, meanwhile, the two icons have faded on 12 more occasions in the domestic competition.

These matches were played across the Premier League (11) and Community Shield (1).

matches	Guardiola wins	Klopp wins	Draw
12	5	3	4

Champions League

The last two matches played were held in what is rapidly developing into one of the most memorable managerial competitions in the memory of modern football on the continent, the Champions League.

And it was Jurgen Klopp who proved the dominant force, emerging victorious in two quarter-final matches during the 2017-18 season.

matches	Guardiola wins	Klopp wins	Draw
2	0	2	0

So what does all the above data tell us when it comes to the overall record between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp?

Remarkably, in their full 22 matches in all competitions, the duo are inseparable, with nine wins each, to go along with four draws.

An ideal platform for one to finally assert their dominance this weekend, then guide either Manchester City or Liverpool to all three points and, most importantly, another step closer to the Premier League title.

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