They were pillars for Pep Guardiolaone in el Manchester City (Vincent Kompany) and the other in the Bayern (Xabi Alonso) at the player level. And this Saturday they star as coaches in what is today the great duel of German football, the Bayern-Bayer Leverkusen. Leader (and dethroned champion) against second (the current champion, who ended an 11-year hegemony of the Munich team).
At the Allianz-Arena they will face each other who was the great captain of Guardiola at City, Kompany, and the one who became the Bayern in one of the personifications of pep (technician) on the field of play in the Bayern, Xabi Alonso. This is the first time they are measured as technicians. They did it seven times as players.
Kompany has had a stellar start on the bench Bayern. Full of wins in the Bundesliga, 4 in 4 days. A total of 16 goals scored and only 3 conceded. The Bayern is the leader, with 3 points more than the Leverkusenwho has won 3 games and lost one (against Leipzig by 2-3). With 13 points in favor and 9 against.
When he took office, Kompany acknowledged that Guardiola influenced him a lot as a player but as a coach he said he wants to “be myself, develop my career.” Xabi Alonso admitted at the time that if he signed for Bayern “it was to work with Guardiola.” He has drawn from various sources to train himself as a technician.
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As players, they faced each other on 7 occasions between clubs and national teams. Xabi Alonso won 5, Vincent Kompany won only once and there was only one draw. As for his confrontations at club level, Kompany always wore the same shirt, that of Manchester City. On the other hand, Xabi Alonso faced the current Bayern coach as a player with the shirt of Liverpool, Real Madrid and the Munich team.
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Thus, they faced each other only once in the Premier, in 2008-09, and Kompany’s ‘citizens’, with Mark Hughes as coach, fell 2-3 against Rafa Benítez and Xabi Alonso’s Liverpool. The other meetings at club level were in the Champions League: Alonso beat Kompany’s City with Real Madrid in the 2012-13 league (3-2) and there was a draw (1-1) at the Etihad.
Finally, as a Bayern player, Xabi Alonso, under Guardiola and in the 2014-15 Champions League, beat Kompany’s City 1-0 and lost 3-2 (the Basque scored the Munich team’s first goal ). And at the national team level, Spain beat Belgium 2-0 in the qualifying phase for the 2006 World Cup and also 1-2 for La Roja in the 2010 World Cup phase.