Manchester City and Liverpool meet again in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final, with managers Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp looking for a chance to add another trophy to their respective resumes.
After success with his current and former clubs, the PA news agency takes a look at his semi-final records.
Pep Guardiola
Winner of 31 major trophies with Barcelona, Bayern and City, the Spaniard is used to fighting for glory.
In 25 Champions League, National Cup and Club World Cup semi-finals in his career, Guardiola has won 16 and lost nine.
His Barça team won the Champions League in both 2009 and 2011, with Manchester United as the beaten finalists on each occasion.
The first came after a semi-final victory over Chelsea thanks to a last-minute strike away from Andrés Iniesta, despite Eric Abidal’s earlier dismissal, while Real Madrid were beaten to reach the 2011 final.
His other two seasons at the club saw them to semi-final elimination by Inter Milan in 2010 and Chelsea in 2012, when it was the Blues’ turn to score a last-minute winner with 10 men.
Barça also beat Mallorca, Almería and Valencia to reach three Copa del Rey finals, winning two, and won two Club World Cups before adding a third with Bayern.
They also won two DFB-Pokals but lost a third semi-final, on penalties to Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, while in Europe they suffered defeat in the Champions League semi-finals for three consecutive years against Real, Barça and then Atlético Madrid.
His City had dominated the League Cup until this season, winning four in a row. They overcame surprise semi-finalists Bristol City in 2018 and Burton the following year, winning the first leg of the latter tie 9-0, before successive quarter-final victories over United.
However, their only win in four FA Cup semi-finals came against Brighton in 2019 before beating Watford 6-0 in the final, and City beat Paris St Germain to reach the Champions League final last season. , only to lose to Chelsea.
Jurgen Klopp
Klopp began his managerial career in the German second division with Mainz, winning promotion but never threatening the quarter-finals of a cup competition, but found success with Borussia Dortmund.
Victory over Greuther Furth earned them a DFB-Pokal final in 2012, where they beat Bayern to seal a league and cup double. They lost to Bayern in the 2014 final and, although they took revenge on penalties in the following season’s semi-final, were beaten by Wolfsburg in the final.
A Champions League semi-final victory over Real Madrid in 2013 set up another showdown with Bayern, which Guardiola’s side won 2-1.
Klopp’s record in the English cups was poor until this season, never reaching this stage of the FA Cup while in the League Cup, Liverpool beat Stoke on penalties to reach the 2016 final, losing to the City, and Southampton inflicted Klopp’s only defeat in the semi-finals. in 2017. They beat Arsenal this season followed by Chelsea in the final.
In Europe, they won dramatic semi-finals 7-6 on aggregate against Roma in 2018 and 4-3 against Barca 12 months later, recovering from a 3-0 deficit in the first leg when Divock Origi memorably swept in the shot from quick corner of Trent Alexander-Arnold. . Villarreal look forward to this year, with a 6-4 quarter-final aggregate victory against Benfica hinting at more of the same.
They also won the 2019 Club World Cup, beating Monterrey in the semi-final and Flamengo in the final.
Comparison
That gives Klopp nine wins and one semi-final loss, so while Guardiola has more experience and more wins overall at that stage, the Liverpool boss has a much better winning percentage.
They also won their only head-to-head meeting in a semi-final, the aforementioned DFB-Pokal tie in 2015.
That saw the teams draw 1-1, Robert Lewandowski’s opening goal disallowed by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, before Dortmund won 2-0 on penalties. Philipp Lahm, Xabi Alonso, Mario Gotze and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer failed for Bayern, with goals from current City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and Sebastian Kehl enough for Dortmund.
