"He beat me a lot" - Pep Guardiola names Jurgen Klopp as toughest opposition manager

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has named Jurgen Klopp as the toughest opposition manager he has ever faced.

Klopp and Guardiola are undoubtedly the best current managers in the Premier League and arguably the greatest in world football, with the two having often expressed their respect for one another plenty of times in the past.

The pair have forged a friendly rivalry in both the Bundesliga - Klopp at Borussia Dortmund and Guardiola at Bayern Munich - and the Premier League with Liverpool and Manchester City, the two coaches regularly challenging one another for major trophies.

The tactical battles between Klopp and the Man City boss have produced some of the greatest games in Premier League history and Guardiola claims that the German is the toughest manager he has ever faced in the opposition dugout.

When asked in a Sky Sports interview about the trickiest manager he has come up against, Guardiola responded quickly: "Jurgen Klopp."

When asked why Klopp, he added: "First, we face [one another] a thousand, million times. In Dortmund and here [in England]. Second because he beat me a lot and that was always a challenge to do it again and again and again.

"I respect him a lot because I think with the way his teams are always playing, Dortmund and Mainz before and now Liverpool, it's so attractive for a spectator, it's so positive.

"We respect each other, at least from my point of view I respect him a lot. Of course, we have arguments and I don't like to be beaten by him, but [he] has been my biggest rival for amount of times we play, how difficult it was, and the pleasure when you beat him because you know how difficult it is."

Klopp has faced no manager on more occasions than Guardiola, the two having met 29 times in competitive fixtures. The next most frequent competitor for the Liverpool boss is Dieter Hecking, but they have encountered one another just 21 times.

Out of those 29 meetings, Klopp has triumphed in 12, drawn six and lost 11 against Guardiola, an incredibly evenly-contested managerial rivalry.

Guardiola has also faced Klopp more than any other coach and the German is the manager he has lot to most often in his career. Having been defeated by Klopp on 12 occasions, Jose Mourinho is next for victories against the Man City manager having beaten him only seven times.