Barcelona vs Bayern Munich: More than a game

Barcelona and Bayern Munich will do battle once again on Friday, August 14 at the Estadio Da Luz in Lisbon in the quarter-final of the Champions League, yet despite the two teams having faced off on multiple occasions, this is much more than a football match.

The last competitive occasion where they shared a pitch was in 2015 when Luis Enrique's Barcelona dismantled the Bavarian club and secured their place in the Berlin final.

As two of the most recognisable and storied teams in European football, Bayern Munich and Barcelona share far more than world class coaches, players, titles and statistics. There are also far more closely entrenched connections:

Guardiola and Van Gaal

The two have coached Barcelona and Bayern Munich at different times. Van Gaal spent three seasons from 1997 to 2000 in the dugout at the Camp Nou where he won two LaLiga titles, one Copa del Rey and a UEFA Super Cup.

He would then take Bayern Munich to a Bundesliga title, a DFB Pokal trophy and the final of the Champions League which he would lose to Inter.

Guardiola, on the other hand, was a student of Van Gaal's at Barcelona and would eventually be appointed as Los Cules coach in the summer of 2008. His first year was a dramatic success as he won the LaLiga title and the Champions League.

He would then stay until 2012, forming one of the truly great teams in football history before heading into the sunset for a sabbatical from coaching.

This sabbatical would last one year as he announced he would coach Bayern Munich from 2013 onwards.

There he won three Bundesliga titles but the Champions League always just evaded his grasp, yet once again his team were heralded for playing some truly inspirational football.

Five Champions Leagues

Both clubs have won the famous trophy on five occasions, with the most recent coming with Barcelona's triumph in Berlin in 2014/15.

This quarter-final tie will ensure that one club of the two will have no option to win their sixth Champions League this term.

Players in common

There are seven players who have shared allegiances with both Bayern Munich and Barcelona with Patrick Anderson one such player, with the Swedish defender signing for Los Cules in 2001/02 from the Bavarian club.

Mark Hughes signed for Barcelona from Manchester United in 1986, but wore the Blaugrana shirt for just one solitary season. Barcelona then loaned the Welsh forward to Bayern Munich for the 1987/88 season.

Pepe Reina joined Barcelona's first team in the 2000/01 season right at the beginning of his career. A spell with Villarreal led him to Liverpool where he played for eight seasons, before he joined Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich where he won the Bundesliga.

Mark van Bommel played one season at the Camp Nou in 2005/06 where he won four trophies, including the Champions League after defeating Arsenal in the Paris final. He then signed for Bayern Munich that summer and became a key figure in the German club's continental resurgence.

Having been seen as the heir to Xavi Hernandez's position at Barcelona, Thiago Alcantara was an unexpected casualty of Guardiola's departure from Spain. He was sold to Bayern Munich four years after his debut in Catalonia, reuniting with the Spanish coach who made him an integral part of his team at the Allianz Arena.

Philippe Coutinho and Arturo Vidal are the latest two players to have represented both clubs. Coutinho arrived at Barcelona in the winter of 2018 after incredibly difficult negotiations with Liverpool.

The Brazilian has been generally poor since arriving in Spain and was then loaned to Bayern Munich for the 2019/20 season.

His form has also been poor in Germany, leaving him facing an uncertain future. Vidal signed for the Catalan club directly from Bayern in the summer of 2018.

He had been a key figure for the German club but his injury record encouraged them to move on from the Chilean.

Interest in Bayern

Barcelona, in addition to the players they've managed to sign, have always retained a strong interest in players belonging to Bayern Munich.

We must remember the saga involving Franck Ribery between 2009 and 2011, with Barcelona convinced he would join, only for him to commit to the German giants.

Javi Martinez was signed by Bayern Munich from Athletic Club, Guardiola wanted him to be a player who could fulfil the role of centre back and midfield. Barcelona's interest remains.

The Germans were the last team to win at the Camp Nou in the Champions League

Despite a recent history in the Champions League that is enough to make Lionel Messi shudder, Bayern Munich were actually the last team to win in the Champions League at the Camp Nou.

This came in the second-leg of the semi-final in 2012/13 where Bayern Munich won 3-0. Ever since then, Los Cules haven't felt European defeat at their own stadium, and this run will continue with the match taking place in Lisbon.

Two teams in the EuroLeague

It's not only in football that these two teams have battled. They both have basketball teams who compete in the EuroLeague. When they last faced each other, the Catalan club won 83-80.