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Pellegrini and Guardiola resume rivalry

Once rival coaches in Spain's biggest fixture, Manuel Pellegrini and Josep Guardiola meet once more when Manchester City FC welcome holders FC Bayern München on matchday two.

As Real Madrid coach, Manuel Pellegrini lost both matches against Josep Guardiola's Barcelona
As Real Madrid coach, Manuel Pellegrini lost both matches against Josep Guardiola's Barcelona ©Getty Images

Manuel Pellegrini renews acquaintance with Josep Guardiola when his Manchester City FC side play host to UEFA Champions League holders FC Bayern München on matchday two.

• Pellegrini failed to beat Guardiola's FC Barcelona as coach of Real Madrid CF, and nor did he manage it with Villarreal CF or Málaga CF. City's five-year unbeaten home run in Europe does offer cause for optimism, as does a 3-0 win at FC Viktoria Plzeň on matchday one, their first opening-day success in the competition.

• For Bayern, this Group D fixture brings them back to England five months after they won the 2013 UEFA Champions League final at Wembley, and they will arrive level on points with City after beating PFC CSKA Moskva 3-0.

Previous meetings
• The clubs first met in the 2011/12 group stage, Jupp Heynckes' Bayern beating City 2-0 in Munich on 27 September 2011 thanks to two Mario Gomez goals (38, 45+1).

• The Bavarian club had already secured first place in the group by the time they met again on matchday six and although David Silva (36) and Yaya Touré (52) earned City a 2-0 home victory, it counted for nothing with SSC Napoli winning the group's other fixture to leave Roberto Mancini's men in third place.

Match background
• City failed to survive the group stage in their two previous UEFA Champions League appearances but have kept intact an impressive undefeated sequence at home in Europe which stretches back 20 matches to a 1-0 loss against FC Midtjylland in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup second qualifying round.

• They were fortunate to escape defeat against their last German visitors, though, holding a Borussia Dortmund side including Mario Götze 1-1 on 3 October last year only thanks to Mario Balotelli's 90th-minute penalty. It was one of their three home draws in the 2012/13 group stage and left them with a home record of W3 D2 L0 against visitors from the Bundesliga.

• Bayern's most recent encounter with English opposition was their UEFA Super Cup contest against Chelsea FC on 30 August in Prague. They won 5-4 on penalties after a 2-2 draw, Franck Ribéry and Javi Martínez scoring Bayern's goals.

• Besides their Wembley final triumph in May, Bayern also won at Arsenal FC in last season's competition, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller and Mario Mandžukić earning them a 3-1 success in the round of 16. They lost the second leg 2-0 but advanced on away goals.

• Bayern's overall record away to English teams is W3 D7 L6.

• Bayern lifted the European Champion Clubs' Cup with a 2-0 final triumph against Leeds United AFC in 1975, but have since lost finals to Aston Villa FC (0-1, 1982), Manchester United FC (1-2, 1999) and Chelsea (1-1, 3-4 pens, 2012).

Team ties
• Guardiola and Pellegrini met as coaches of Barcelona and Real Madrid in  2009/10, Barça winning both matches – 1-0 at home and 2-0 away – as they beat Madrid to the Liga title by three points.

• With Villarreal in 2008/09, Pellegrini suffered a 2-1 home defeat by Guardiola's Barcelona but earned a 3-3 draw at the Camp Nou.

• The Chilean's Málaga side lost all four Liga games against Guardiola's Barcelona between 2010 and 2012, scoring four goals and conceding 15.

• Guardiola twice led Barcelona to UEFA Champions League final triumphs over Manchester United FC – 2-0 in Rome in 2009 and 3-1 at Wembley two years later. He also lifted the trophy as a player at Wembley when Barcelona overcame UC Sampdoria in 1992.

• As a Barcelona player and coach, Guardiola's only away win against Premier League opposition in eight attempts was a 4-2 victory over Arsenal FC at Wembley in the 1999/2000 group stage. There were four defeats, including a 1-0 reverse at Chelsea FC in the 2011/12 semi-finals.

• Pellegrini's Málaga suffered a dramatic late defeat against Götze's Dortmund in last season's UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, the German side scoring twice in added time to win the second leg 3-2 and advance by the same score on aggregate.

• Martín Demichelis, a member of that Málaga side, was at Bayern from 2003 until January 2011, winning both the Bundesliga and the German Cup four times.

• Touré played under Guardiola in the Barcelona team that beat Bayern 5-1 on aggregate in the 2008/09 quarter-finals.

• Daniel Van Buyten made five league appearances for City on loan from Olympique de Marseille in 2003/04 while Jérôme Boateng spent 2010/11 with the Manchester club, making 16 league appearances. Boateng also played with Vincent Kompany at Hamburger SV from 2006 to 2008.

• On 6 September, Mandžukić scored Croatia's goal in a 1-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying draw against a Serbia side including Matija Nastasić and Aleksandar Kolarov. Mandžukić also scored when the same players met in Croatia's 2-0 home win over Serbia in March, and faced Kompany in his country's 1-1 draw in Belgium last year.

• Kompany's hopes of UEFA EURO 2012 qualification with Belgium were ended in October 2011 by a 3-1 defeat by a Germany side including Neuer, Philipp Lahm, Kroos and Müller.

• Kompany was also part of the RSC Anderlecht side eliminated from the UEFA Champions League after a 1-0 defeat at a Bayern side including Claudio Pizarro and substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger in their final 2003/04 group stage fixture.

• A 2009 Bundesliga champion, Edin Džeko played for VfL Wolfsburg from 2007 to 2010, scoring four goals in seven Bundesliga appearances against Bayern. In June 2010, Džeko scored for Bosnia and Herzegovina in a 3-1 friendly defeat in Frankfurt against a Germany team whose goals came from Schweinsteiger (two penalties) and Lahm.

• Boateng, Lahm, Neuer, Schweinsteiger, Müller and substitute Kroos all featured in Germany's 4-0 win against an Argentina side including Demichelis and substitute Sergio Agüero in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals.

• David Silva and substitute Jesús Navas were in the Spain side that beat Arjen Robben's Netherlands 1-0 in the 2010 World Cup final. Navas had previously played as Spain defeated Bayern's Germany contingent in the semi-final, while Silva featured in Spain's 1-0 defeat of Germany in the final of UEFA EURO 2008.

• Ribéry and Samir Nasri were colleagues at Marseille from 2005 to 2007 and play together for France.

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