Is Jose Mourinho a better manager than Pep Guardiola?

In the last 15 years, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho have dominated the European football stage. Both managers have been able to create iconic teams filled with great players capable of being remembered for years.

For a short period, the Spaniard and the Portuguese were together at Barcelona in the late 90s. Mourinho worked as a translator for Bryan Robson who was the manager at that time, and Guardiola was a player at the club.

Guardiola's achievements as manager include creating an unstoppable Barcelona team at the start of the decade, with the combination of Xavi and Iniesta in their primes and Lionel Messi leading the line. The Bayern Munich team which he took over after his tenure with Barcelona broke multiple records in the Bundesliga. And Manchester City, the team that he is managing now, is one of the best football teams to have graced the Premier League.

Mourinho first burst onto the scene when his Porto side shocked the world by winning the Champions League in 2004. The Chelsea team which he took over after that, consisting of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba at their peaks, won back-to-back Premier League titles.

The Inter Milan team he managed after his Chelsea tenure was one of the most successful sides in Italian football history. The Real Madrid team which he took over in 2010, featuring Cristiano Ronaldo approaching his prime years, was one of the most dangerous counter-attacking teams in the world.

Football fans all over the world love to compare these two managers. They pitch Guardiola's fluid attacking version of football against Mourinho's defensively sound, counter-attacking one, and they argue over whose style is better.

Both Guardiola and Mourinho are legendary managers who have left their marks on footballing history. But there are a couple of things that give the Portuguese the edge.

Mourinho has won the Champions League with two different teams

Clubs from Portugal rarely win the Champions League. Before 2004, the last time a club from the Iberian nation lifted the trophy was when Porto themselves won it in 1987.

Mourinho won the Champions League with Porto at a time when clubs like Manchester United, Juventus, Real Madrid and AC Milan were dominating Europe.

Jose Mourinho at Porto

Moreover, the Inter Milan side he took over in 2008 rewrote history as they became the first Italian side in history to clinch the treble. They won the Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Champions League in 2010, a feat which even the famous AC Milan and Juventus sides of old couldn't accomplish.

Bayern Muenchen v Inter Milan - UEFA Champions League Final

Guardiola also has won the Champions League twice, but both occasions were with Barcelona. He failed to win the trophy during his time at Bayern Munich, and is yet to progress beyond the quarter-finals with Manchester City.

The Portuguese won the biggest trophies with inferior squads

Mourinho's Porto team that won the Champions League in 2004 had some great players like Deco, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho and Benni McCarthy. But the fact is that the Porto squad of 2004 was nowhere near as good as the Barcelona squad of 2008-09.

When Guardiola took over Barcelona in 2008-09, he acquired one of the most richly talented squads ever assembled. Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o were scoring goals for fun. Xavi and Iniesta were dominating the midfield like no one else. And Messi was fast approaching his absolute peak, already tearing defenses up like it was a walk in the park.

They even had great leaders like Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal in that team, which defined a glorious era for the Catalan based club.

Barcelona v Manchester United - UEFA Champions League Final

Mourinho's Inter Milan side had better players than his Porto team. He had Wesley Sneijder, Diego Milito and Lucio in their primes, and they had just bought Samuel Eto'o from Barcelona too. The team also had leaders like Javier Zanetti and Marco Materazzi, but they were still not a patch on the quality of that iconic Barcelona team.

All things considered, Mourinho faced greater odds than Guardiola if you compare the two managers' most successful spells. But Guardiola is still going strong, and could well add to his tally of Champions League titles. If he does manage that, he will arguably pip Mourinho to the post of greatest manager of our times; until then, Mourinho has a slight lead.

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