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THE scene was Liverpool’s victorious dressing room in Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium after the final of the 2019 Champions League.
Physio Lee Nobes, who left Manchester City for Anfield the previous year, answered a phone call from his old boss Pep Guardiola.
Reuters
GettyGuardiola and Reds chief Jurgen Klopp had been rivals before as managers of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
But this call arrived days after the climax of their greatest contest, when City pipped Liverpool to the Premier League title by a single point after a relentless run-in.
Guardiola wanted to pass on his congratulations to Klopp but Nobes went one better by tapping the German on the shoulder and putting him on the line.
Klopp was startled by such a classy gesture and joked that he had had to stop City from winning everything after they had claimed a unique English domestic treble.
For while bitterness and loathing has flowed between fans, players and directors of Liverpool and City, the two managers have always held each other in supreme mutual respect.
The seething enmity between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger during the Manchester United and Arsenal duopoly would never be replicated between these two.
Sunday’s clash at Anfield will be the last tango between Klopp’s Reds and Guardiola’s City — unless there is a Wembley FA Cup tie to come.
Fittingly for a final fling between English football’s two modern dynasties, Klopp is chasing a quadruple, and Guardiola a ‘double Treble’.
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GettyAnd while their head-to-head record in England is tight — excluding Community Shields, Liverpool have won seven, City six, with six draws — Guardiola’s City have never won at Anfield in front of a crowd.
Despite claiming five Prem titles to Klopp’s one during this eight-year rivalry, Guardiola’s only joy at Liverpool’s home was a 4-1 win in the pandemic campaign of 2020-21.
It is a rivalry for the ages and a clash of styles on a personal and tactical level.
Klopp’s ‘heavy metal football’ against Guardiola’s orchestral manoeuvres — the tenacious ‘gegenpressing’ ball-winning coach against the brooding, obsessive high priest of possession football.
Yet both openly admit they are each other’s greatest mutual motivations.
It is highly possible Guardiola would never have lasted nearly as long at the Etihad had it not been for Klopp’s challenge, because dominating English football may have been too easy.
Asked on Friday what he admired most about Guardiola, Klopp replied: “It’s winning the amount of trophies he’s won.
“But you feel, when you see him on the touchline, he behaves like he’s never won anything before. So the desire he has is absolutely outstanding.
“I recognise excellence when I face it and Pep is definitely that.”
Asked if having spent ten seasons as a direct rival to Guardiola — in Germany then England — had frustrated him, Klopp insisted: “I was never frustrated.
“As a player I knew 3,000 footballers were better than me and I still loved the game.
“At this moment, I just got told I have a positive record against Pep.
“I have no clue how that happened. I know I’m quite good at what I’m doing but he is the outstanding manager of my time.”
And it is easy to forget that Guardiola arrived at City in 2016, just as Jose Mourinho was taking over at Manchester United.
That rivalry — often genuinely spiteful during the pair’s Clasico days at Barcelona and Real Madrid — caused feverish anticipation but ended up a damp squib.
PAMourinho was axed by United after a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool in December 2018, just as Klopp was rising up as Guardiola’s nemesis and his muse.
In early January 2019 — in a game played at an impossible tempo amid a febrile Etihad atmosphere — Liverpool would suffer their only Premier League defeat of the season.
A ridiculous John Stones goal-line clearance stopped the ball crossing the line by 11mm, helping City to a 2-1 win and, ultimately, the title.
City won their last 14 league matches to edge out Liverpool by a solitary point.
The fact that Klopp’s men finished on a nine-game winning streak but still finished as runners-up with 97 points was the truest testimony to the exceptional nature of the City-Liverpool rivalry.
That was just the first of two great title races between the clubs.
The second, two seasons ago, produced the more dramatic finale, as City roared back from 2-0 down to defeat Aston Villa 3-2 on the final Sunday to once more deny Liverpool by a point.
Ilkay Gundogan, who scored twice in that extraordinary comeback, is one of the few men to have played for both Guardiola and Klopp.
Germany hero Gundogan described Klopp as a ‘father figure and friend’ during some difficult early days at Dortmund.
But after becoming Guardiola’s first City signing in 2016, Gundogan claimed it was the Catalan who taught him all he knew.
GettyGundogan said: “Before I joined Manchester City, I thought, ‘I know football’. I was 25 years old, I thought I’d seen a lot. I’d won league titles and cups.
“But after seven years of Pep’s school, I probably would say I didn’t know anything about football before.”
This season, Klopp’s last hurrah on Merseyside, is shaping up to become the most compelling Premier League title race yet, with top-three Liverpool, City and Arsenal separated by just two points.
Mikel Arteta’s men have scored 31 times in seven straight league wins and will go top if they beat Brentford at home on Saturday.
Yet such are the reputations of Klopp’s Liverpool and Guardiola’s City that the Gunners remain third favourites with the bookies by a significant margin.
On Sunday, Anfield is sure to stage another battle of extreme intensity and uncommon quality.
Perhaps it will be the last meeting between Klopp and Guardiola, perhaps their penultimate clash.
Strangely, the two clubs have never contested a cup final under their current managers.
So a date at Wembley in the FA Cup on May 25 would feel like the perfect ending.
AP
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