Pep Guardiola has named Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool as the biggest challenge of his managerial career, ahead of Real Madrid. This came after Manchester City were eliminated 5-1 on aggregate by Madrid in the Champions League last-16. Guardiola highlighted the intensity of his clashes with Liverpool during his time at City.
Manchester City suffered a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League last-16. In the first leg at the Bernabeu, Federico Valverde scored a hat-trick as Madrid won 3-0. Vinicius Junior netted twice in the second leg at Manchester, securing a 2-1 victory for the visitors despite City's response on home soil. This marks the third consecutive season Madrid have knocked City out at this stage, following eliminations in 2024, 2025, and now 2026, with City prevailing only in the 2023 semi-finals en route to a treble. During his post-match press conference, Guardiola rejected suggestions that Madrid were his toughest opponents. > No, my biggest challenge was Jurgen Klopp with Liverpool, in these years here. You were in Spain, you didn’t realise what that competition was. He also noted City's growth in European competition: > It’s been a good learning experience for the club, because this is a club that 12 or 13 years ago was never in Europe. Playing so many times against Real Madrid, with the generation we’ve had, we’ve done it. They’ve won, we’ve won. The numbers are similar, they’ve knocked us out more than we have them. But they know how we’ve played. Guardiola's career record against Madrid stands at 14 wins, six draws, and ten losses across 30 meetings, spanning Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and City. Against Klopp, encounters were closely fought: four wins for Guardiola, three for Klopp, and one draw in the Bundesliga; Klopp edged Premier League meetings 8-6 with eight draws. During their overlapping tenures, Guardiola secured six titles to Klopp's one.
