Matters of fate, this Tuesday Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel meet again and in the Champions League, the title won by the German coach on May 29, 2021 in Porto after defeating the Catalan coach 0-1, who failed to win what would have been his first European crown at Manchester City, the first after two were won he in charge of Barcelona (2008-09 and 2009-11).
Yes, it’s fate: Tuchel replaces Julian Nagelsmann as Bayern coach just in time to face Guardiola’s City in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the first leg of which will be played this Tuesday at the Etihad. As for the confrontations between Tuchel and Guardiola, they have been measured 10 times, with 6 wins for Pep, 3 for the German and one draw.
How Guardiola and Tuchel met is history: in a Munich bar, Schumann’s, at a dinner organized in 2014 by Michael Reschke, Bayern’s sports director at the time. Pep Guardiola led the Munich team, Tuchel, who is a great fan of Guardiola, took a sabbatical after coaching Mainz. They talked about soccer for four hours. Thus began a good relationship between colleagues.
Many saw a new Jürgen Klopp in Tuchel when the now Bayern coach took over from his compatriot at Borussia Dortmund in 2015. But in reality Tuchel’s teacher was Guardiola, to the point of being a student of Pep’s Barça. Tuchel went to the Camp Nou to study how Guardiola reacts to certain situations during matches.
The truth is Tuchel and Pep are different in their playing styles. But they are both master tacticians, great strategists, they love offensive football. Perfectionists, demanding, leaders in their changing rooms, interventionists even in the diet or sleeping hours of their players.
Ilkay Gündogan, who had Tuchel as coach at Dortmund and now one of Guardiola’s main components at City, said at the time that both “are very similar, two great coaches, at a very high tactical level, with the ability to manage the difficulties that may occur during of a fight.”
while, Pep Guardiola said in March 2022, when the German was still in charge of Chelsea, that “Tuchel is one of the few I keep learning from”.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
