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The first time Diego Simeone pitted himself directly against Pep Guardiola, he had World Cup-winning Carlos Bilardo as his manager, World Cup-winning Diego Maradona beside him in midfield, Pep's future treble-winning assistant Juan Carlos Unzue in goal and the prolific Davor Suker up front. Even so, he couldn't beat Guardiola. Not that time.
A year later, he tried again, also with Sevilla; this time, Luis "the Wise Man of Hortaleza" Aragonés was his coach instead of Bilardo. Romario and future Sevilla manager Manolo Jimenez were both sent off, but for the second successive meeting, neither Simeone's nor Guardiola's team could muster a goal between them.
Two games, two 0-0 draws. What he would give for precisely that scoreline in Munich against Pep's Bayern tonight!
After joining Atletico, Simeone's first result against Guardiola was another scoreline -- a 4-3 defeat at the Camp Nou -- that would suit him in 2016. Neutrals would love that; Bayern fans would despair. Simeone would, in such a case, be in his second Champions League final in just two years.
Do you believe in such omens and echoes across the years? Some don't, but some in football most definitely do.
The first time Simeone the footballer defeated a team with Guardiola in it, the Catalan was aiming for the fabled treble of Cup, League and Champions League, just as he is now. It was a titanic clash, and it altered football history. Literally.
By early April 1996, Guardiola's Barcelona had drawn 2-2 in the Champions League semifinal away leg against -- you guessed it -- Bayern Munich. Guardiola and Barça were three points off the top of La Liga (behind Simeone's Atlético), and they also faced a Copa del Rey Final in Zaragoza -- against Simeone & Co.
The final was epic, settled in extra time by one key moment: Just as Johan Cruyff made his third substitution, Guardiola tore his hamstring and the Catalan, who'd been the game's best player, was overrun by Simeone in midfield despite hobbling around in agonising pain and giving all he could. Milinko Pantic's extra-time goal won the Copa for Simeone and Atleti. Guardiola missed a month with the injury, Barcelona immediately dropped two points in Santander and they were then beaten at home by Bayern in the European Cup.
From the verge of the treble to failure in every trophy. Scandalously, Cruyff was sacked less than a month later.
For all intents and purposes, the modern Barcelona, galvanised by Joan Laporta and Txiki Begiristain and driving everything on via Cruyffian principles, was born that day when Simeone drove Atleti to victory in the Copa past the badly injured Guardiola. It led to Cruyff being sacked, much to the fury of young Laporta. A Cruyff-supporting "Blue Elephant" protest group was formed, which would duly force Laporta into the Camp Nou Presidency in 2003. Five years later, he appointed Guardiola as coach.
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As for Simeone? One of the absolute heroes of Atleti's only Liga and Copa double got his glory at Guardiola's expense. They would meet head-to-head four more times as players. There was a 6-5 aggregate win for Guardiola's Barcelona in the Spanish Supercup. A 3-3 draw in the league and then a 5-2 win for Barcelona at the Calderon, the stadium Guardiola left last defeated last week, when Simeone was sent off for an "attack" on Luis Figo.
How times change. Right now Simeone isn't just the most successful Atleti manager in history, he's also a demigod to the club and its fans: messianic, loved, revered, feared, paid a king's ransom and given the players he wants and needs by the Atleti board.
Right at the head of that board is Migel Angel Gil, who was director general of the club back in April 1997, the last time the two managers did battle on the pitch. After Simeone's red card for that aggressive act against Figo, Miguel Angel Gil spoke. "What Simeone did is indescribable. There may have been some lamentable refereeing errors, but Simeone getting himself sent off turned the game, because at that stage, Barcelona were dead on their feet."
What odds, then, on Gil re-hiring the combative Argentinian as manager in the future? Very, very low. How times change.
The last time the two men went head-to-head prior to this already explosive Champions League semifinal, it was both intense and dramatic. It came in the spring of 2012. Both men were coaches, and it was Guardiola's final months at Barcelona. His team won 2-1 at the Calderon, thanks to a spectacular late Lionel Messi free-kick goal that Simeone felt had been taken before his defenders and keeper were ready.
After the match, Guardiola sniped at Atleti: "It was complicated to win against a hard, persistent rival who tried to rob us of our match rhythm with foul after foul."
For his part, Simeone took a sly dig at Barca's perceived help from the referee. "Right now we don't need to think about whether the free kick was taken while we were arranging our wall, whether the referee should have sent off [Dani] Alves, whether Busquets should have been called for a penalty ... the referee was just excellent... "
But for all their fiery clashes over the past 23 years, and for all their polar differences in how they want football to be played, let there be no doubt about the esteem in which the Argentinian holds the Catalan and his work; no doubt because of how often he made it clear long before their semifinal clash was set.
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The week before he won the Spanish title in 2014, Simeone explained his feelings. "I argue with people who say there's only 'one way' to play well, because, for example, there isn't just one way to live well! Every one of us chooses the way we wish to live our life, and no choice is better or worse than the other.
"As a coach, I've learned important things from both [Jose] Mourinho and Guardiola. They are 'different' from everyone else. Whether one likes or doesn't like Mourinho is something you can talk about, but what I always point out is that he's won in different countries. Guardiola, from a totally different stand point, has an alternative idea about football, which is the best news for all of us who love this sport. Because we get to watch Barça move the ball!"
Then in his book Partido a Partido, Simeone elaborated further.
"One of the great examples of how to manage a squad comes from Guardiola when he was at Barcelona. He was capable of building a great squad but also of teaching its component players the need to win and, above all, the need to keep on winning and winning. It's the most difficult thing of all for a coach. More than that, even, he was capable of constructing an identity in the style of play that made his teams, possibly, the greatest football sides we'll see in our lives.
"Obviously the club's big budget helps, because with less money, it's very complicated to keep a squad together. Players will go off in search of bigger contracts and other footballing adventures. But the other great success of Guardiola is that he's not allowed success to confuse or misguide his players. The more you triumph, the more chance there is that it will put you close to making big mistakes. But Guardiola has not allowed that to happen during his time at Barcelona."
It will be heated, and maybe even aggressive, in Munich tonight. But it will just be another chapter in the Pep vs. Diego story. And it's a good one.