Beating Real Madrid is difficult and doing it in Europe is even harder. Pep Guardiola explained this perfectly more than eight years ago after a Copa del Rey victory at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. "To come here so many times and to not lose isn't normal", he stated, conscious of the defeats he had suffered in that stadium as a player.
However, if someone has cracked the code of how to beat Real Madrid then it's Guardiola. He has coached 19 official matches against Real Madrid, boating an impressive record of 11 wins, four draws and four defeats.
Of those 11 victories, six have been in the Bernabeu, making him the first coach to ever reach that number of wins. His only defeat in the Spanish capital came with Bayern Munich.
Surely no one else could have broken Zinedine Zidane's winning streak in the Champions League. The Frenchman met his match when coming up against the Catalan. In a competition that has historically favoured Los Blancos, the balance is in Guardiola's favour, with him having eliminated the Madrid side twice (once with Barcelona and once with City) in the knockout stages. Real Madrid knocked his side out once in the latter stages of the competition when he was in charge of Bayern Munich.
Really, it's out of the ordinary to get the better of Real Madrid so often. Just ask any of their other opponents. But Guardiola isn't your average coach. He's a genius and the stats back it up. There are a lot of reasons to fear him in the Bernabeu.