When Simeone mocked Guardiola: While still an Atlético player, he put the Barcelona legend in the crib twice, then applauded himself

Diego Simeone and Pep Guardiola? Today, long-established coaches, but in the past two great players. In both roles they have faced each other several times and will probably face each other again in the role of coaches. How did their duels as players look like? That’s what fans are recalling on social media.

Two former great players, now great coaches. Both are now 52 years old, one has led Atlético Madrid since 2011, the other has coached Manchester City since the summer of 2016. And both are doing a great job at their clubs.

Diego Simeone and Pep Guardiola have an interesting rivalry between them. They respect each other, however, when they face each other, things get pretty heated at times. They both have completely different styles. While Simeone prefers a solid defensive game, Guardiola is a jack of all trades and wants his team to play first.

As players, they both played in the centre of midfield. While Guardiola has always been more of the defensive midfielder, Simeone has had much more complex instructions on the pitch. However, both were, among other things, superbly technical.

Fans who didn’t experience them as players can recall this in various videos from times gone by. For example, a video of one of Atlético Madrid and Barcelona’s matches in the 1995/96 season is now making the rounds on social media again.

Atlético won the double in that season and Simeone had no small part in it. He scored 12 goals in the league that season alone. In addition, Madrid beat Barcelona twice that season with Guardiola 3-1.

Simeone was “only” in one of these matches, but he played a lot of games with Guardiola. Twice he put him in the crib in a matter of moments, then applauded himself before resuming the game. Who knows how he would react if one of his charges did something similar today.

They’ve only competed as coaches a few times in their careers so far. Simeone took over Atlético in the 2011/15 season, after which Guardiola left Barcelona. In La Liga, Guardiola’s team beat Simeone’s then.

Four seasons later, however, Simeone’s Atlético matured in the Champions League semi-finals against Guardiola’s Bayern Munich thanks to the then still in force away goals rule. In the final, Atlético fell to city rival Real Madrid.

Source: Twitter, Transfermarkt