They are pillars for Pep Guardiolaone of el Manchester City (Vincent Kompany) and the other on Bayern (Xabi Alonso) at the player level. And this Saturday they star as coaches in what is now the great rivalry of German football, the Bayern-Bayer Leverkusen. Leader (and deposed champion) against second (the current champion, which ended the 11-year hegemony of the Munich team).
In the Allianz-Arena they will face the great captain of Guardiola at City, Kompany, and the became Bavaria in one of the personifications of pep (technician) on the field of play in Bayern, Xabi Alonso. This is the first time they are measured as technicians. They did it seven times as players.
Kompany has had a stellar start to the bank Bavaria. Full of Bundesliga wins, 4 in 4 days. A total of 16 goals were scored and only 3 conceded. He Bavaria is the leader, with 3 points more than Leverkusenwho won 3 games and lost one (vs Leipzig through 2-3). With 13 points in favor and 9 against.
When he took over, Kompany acknowledged that Guardiola had a big influence on him as a player but as a coach he said he wanted to “be myself, develop my career at the time that if he signed for Bayern “it will work with Guardiola.” He drew from various sources to train himself as a technician.
As players, they faced each other on 7 occasions between clubs and national teams. Xabi Alonso won 5, Vincent Kompany only won once and only one draw. As for his confrontations at club level, Kompany has always worn the same shirt, that of Manchester City. On the other hand, Xabi Alonso faced the current coach of Bayern as a player with the shirt of Liverpool, Real Madrid and the Munich team.
So, they have only met once in the Premier League, in 2008-09, and Kompany’s ‘citizens’, with Mark Hughes as coach, went down 2-3 against Rafa Benítez and Xabi Alonso’s Liverpool. Other meetings at club level were in the Champions League: Alonso beat Kompany’s City with Real Madrid in the 2012-13 league (3-2) and had a draw (1-1) at the Etihad.
Finally, as a Bayern player, Xabi Alonso, under Guardiola and in the 2014-15 Champions League, beat Kompany’s City 1-0 and lost 3-2 (the Basque scored the first goal of the Munich team). And at the national team level, Spain beat Belgium 2-0 in the qualifying phase for the 2006 World Cup and also 1-2 for La Roja in the 2010 World Cup phase.
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.
