Ever since it was confirmed that Jose Mourinho would be succeeding Louis Van Gaal in the Old Trafford hot-seat, Saturday 10 September has been a date etched into the minds of supporters across the globe.
It’s a rivalry rich in history and narrative, stretching right back to the early 1990s when Mourinho was part of Sir Bobby Robson’s coaching team at the Camp Nou where Pep Guardiola played his football.
Their times on either side of the El Clasico divide pitted the two former colleagues against one another but how do their records stack up?
Head to Head
The pair have met on 16 occasions, with most of those clashes (11) occurring when Pep was in charge of Barcelona and Mourinho was at the Real Madrid helm.
Guardiola holds a strong lead over his United rival in head-to-head matches, winning more than half of their meetings and scoring ten more goals over the course of those games.
Intriguingly with Saturday in mind, there has been an average of 2.6 goals per match in those 16 showdowns.
Wins
Guardiola 7 - 3 Mourinho
6 Draws
Goals
Guardiola 26 - 16 Mourinho
Biggest win
Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid – November 2010
The first La Liga Clasico between the two men provides the biggest win either have inflicted on the other, with Guardiola’s brilliant Barca side running out 5-0 winners.
It was a win that sent shockwaves through the footballing world Xavi, David Villa (2) and Jeffren doing the damage with the goals.
Overall
Matches
Guardiola 451 – 769 Mourinho
Wins
Guardiola 330 – 509 Mourinho
Win percentage
Guardiola 73.13% - 66.2% Mourinho
League titles
Guardiola 6 – 8 Mourinho
Domestic Cups (including Super Cups/Community Shields etc)
Guardiola 7 – 12 Mourinho
European Trophies (including UEFA Super Cup)
Guardiola 5 – 3 Mourinho
FIFA World Club Cup
Guardiola 3 – 0 Mourinho
Mourinho has taken charge of 300+ more games than his City equivalent, starting his managerial career seven years earlier than Guardiola.
He’s also managed more clubs than Pep’s three, taking charge of Benfica, Leiria, Porto, Chelsea (x2), Inter and Real Madrid.
That unsurprisingly means that Mourinho has won more matches than Pep, although Guardiola’s win percentage is a significantly higher than the Portuguese.
Guardiola has a better trophy-per-match ratio than his rival and has got his hands on the FIFA World Club Cup three times to Mourinho’s one, although the now-United boss has won more league titles in total than the Catalan.