The 'Guardiola method' versus the magic of the 'Zidane legend'

The youngest coach to win the Champions League versus the only one that has won three in a row (in its modern format, as Madrid and Ajax linked five and three with the old one). The method guru, Guardiola, in front of the bench magician, Zidane. There is no player on the pitch who has more merit in the world of football to capture the spotlight than the two of them, with a long career as footballers and now, more Catalan than French, as a coach. In that facet, If Zidane has won a title every 19 games to count 11, Guardiola has done it every 22 games to 29. If those who know say Guardiola, who is obsessed with methodology and who prepares each game to the point of exhaustion, those who have seen Zidane slip away on the field simply explain that “he is capable of convincing a player with a single glance.” Today, for the second time, they will be face to face …

Zidane's history as a coach in the Champions League is insurmountable. He has not yet been defeated in a tie. He wears full French, nine out of nine … If his Madrid does not win at the Etihad, that streak will be broken, which has helped him lift three orejonas having directed 40 games. Pep, for example, had to direct 121 (three more times), to win two …

The great thorn that Guardiola has nailed since he left Barça, in fact, is the Champiopns. It was in the Culé team where he set a trend in football, Guardiola's Barça, as before, Rinus Michel's Ajax or Sacchi's Milan had a change in football. Technicians, all three, capable of innovating. But If with Barça Guardiola raised the two Champions League in 50 games, with Bayern he did not achieve it in 36 and with City he has not done it in 35. He has not even managed to pass the quarters with the citizen team (eighth, fourth, fourth) And that, since its arrival in 2016, the property of the entity, the state of Abu Dabhi, has spent 600 million on transfers.

For his part, Zidane has shown how to optimize the performance of a squad for which many were crying out for a renewal. He has won the Coronavirus League with the same players who last season ran out of options for any title in March (plus Mendy, since he has practically not been able to count on Hazard due to injury), And the fans dream that, this year, they can repeat the historic double of the 2016-17 season, which took place 59 years later in Madrid. For that he has to defeat the City of Guardiola. Two bench monsters face to face.