When Guardiola was a midfielder, defending the Barça colours, he never lost to a side coached by current Valladolid boss, Javier Clemente. Guardiola has a record of three wins and a draw against the Basque manager.
Neither in charge of Espanyol, nor Betis, nor Real Sociedad. Clemente never beat Barça with Josep
Guardiola on the pitch. Now he goes to the Camp Nou in charge of Valladolid, and fighting for top
flight survival. Sunday will be their first face-off as managers.
Important win for league dream
The first time Clemente faced Guardiola was when he was manager of Espanyol in the
1991/92 season. In the second-to-last game of the season, Barça went to the old Sàrria stadium
needing three points to stay in the hunt for the title. They stormed to a 4-0 win with goals from
Koeman, Txiki, Eusebio and Ferrer, and on the final day, another win combined with Madrid’s
loss in Tenerife, meant the title was conquered by the Dream Team.
Three points to stay on course
On January 17, in Seville, Clemente, then manager of Betis, suffered another severe
home corrective of 0-3 against a Barça side that was chasing surprise league leaders Celta. FC
Barcelona ended up winning the title.
First point with Real
The only time Clemente got a point against Barça and Guardiola was at Anoeta in the 1999/00
season. The Real Sociedad side he was coaching held the Catalans to a goalless draw with one game
left of the season. In the first game between the teams, FC Barcelona won 3-1 at the Camp Nou.
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Clemente: 200 League wins
Last week’s win over Racing, who are in the same battle with Valladolid for last day
survival, was win number 200 for the Basque manager in the League. He is only the seventh man to do
so, following in the wake of Luis Aragonés, Miguel Muñoz, Javier Irureta, Fernando Daucik, Helenio
Herrera and John Toshack.