This Saturday the faces will be seen on the benches for the fifth time Manuel Pellegrini Y Diego Simeone, which debuted on the mattress bench precisely before the Chilean coach on January 7, 2012 in The Rose Garden in a match that ended 0-0 against Malaga, where Willy Caballero, Isco, Cazorla and a very young Juanmi, then 18 years old and today in the ranks of Real Betis, played. Simeone arrived on the mattress bench at Christmas 2011, once the dismissal of Goyo Manzano was consummated after what to date is the last Verdiblanco triumph in Atlético's field, on 0-2 on December 18, 2011.
The four times that Pellegrini and Simeone have met on the benches have been with the Chilean in front, Málaga, with two 0-0 draws at La Rosaleda and two 2-1 defeats at Vicente Calderón, the first after overcoming those of Simeone scored a goal from Eliseu (37 ') with two from Koke (68') and Adrián López (78 ') and the second thanks to an own goal by Weligton in the 88th minute that broke the 1-1 after goals from Falcao (5 ') and Roque Santa Cruz (35'). In those two away defeats with Málaga, the current Betic captain Joaquín Sánchez played as the starter.
The balance of Manuel Pellegrini's confrontations against Atlético de Madrid is 7 wins, 5 draws and 8 losses. Of the seven victories, three were achieved in Atlético's field, where he has won once with all the teams he has managed in Spain: with Villarreal 3-4 in November 2007, with two goals from Nihat, one from Rossi and another by Fabricio Fuentes, and Javier Aguirre on the mattress bench. He also won 2-3 with Real Madrid in November 2009, with goals from Kaká, Marcelo and Higuaín, and Quique Sánchez Flores on the athletic bench. And finally, he did it 0-3 on his first visit to Málaga in May 2011, with goals from Rondón, Julio Baptista and Maresca to De Gea, who was then the mattress goalkeeper, with Joel Robles on the bench, where Quique Sánchz Flores still remained as coach.
Diego Simeone, for his part, has faced Real Betis 17 times as a coach, with a balance of 12 wins, 4 draws and a single defeat (at Benito Villamarín, in February 2019), a balance that only improves in their matches against Getafe (15G 2E and 0P).