Pep Guardiola vs Xavi Hernández: The master against his pupil

"Xavi doesn't have to be my heir or anyone else's heir. He has to be himself". These were Pep Guardiola's words about Xavi Hernández nine months ago, shortly after he was appointed as Barça's coach. Comparisons between the two were inevitable, due to their similar style and understanding of football.

Tomorrow Barça and Manchester City will play a friendly match to pay tribute to Juan Carlos Unzué and raise funds for ALS research, where the two coaches will clash for the first time.

Both are devotees of the idealogy that Johan Cruyff implemented at FC Barcelona. Guardiola both played with and learned from the Dutchman. Xavi too picked up a lot of knowledge from Cruyff and Guardiola as well, and under the latter became one of the best midfielders in the world.

"Being coached by Guardiola was a master class. I learned a lot. The way he is, the ambition, the desire, the passion. He is obsessed with football, with tactics," said the current Barça coach about Guardiola.

Both Barça and Manchester City play attacking football. Their teams strive for possession, press hard on losing the ball and both are devotees of positional play. They favour a 4-3-3 formation, though both have varied from this sometimes to play three defenders.

Both are also very demanding of their players. When Guardiola arrived at Barça, he had asked for the sale of Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto'o, and Xavi emulated him and did not hesitate to warn his captain, Gerard Piqué, that he may not play much this season.

The similarities between the two, who were in the same squad in 1998, are many. With almost identical play styles, they will face each other tomorrow in what should be an exciting contest.

Also, on Thursday, the draw for the first round of the Champions League could bring about another clash, this time an official one.