A manager coming up against a coach they used to play under is a special occasion in itself, but that becomes even more memorable if the apprentice can win and get one over on their former mentor.
Here’s a look at eight high profile examples of when the student became the master…
Bryan Robson (Sir Alex Ferguson)
After hanging up his boots and leaving Manchester United, Bryan Robson faced former manager Alex Ferguson 16 times during his own managerial career and was victorious only once.
That came during Robson’s time at Middlesbrough and saw a famous 3-2 defeat of his former club at Old Trafford in December 1998. Hamilton Ricard, Brian Deane and Dean Gordon scored for Boro that day, which actually proved to be United’s final defeat of their treble campaign.
Robson then lost 10 and drew once the next 11 times he faced Ferguson.
Mark Hughes (Sir Alex Ferguson)
After seven years as a United player under Alex Ferguson, Mark Hughes went on to face his former boss on 15 occasions over the years after hanging up his boots and becoming a manager himself.
Ferguson won those duels most of the time, but Hughes did emerge victorious on two occasions, both during his time with Blackburn Rovers and both during the 2005/06 season as Hughes beat his old mentor home and away in the Premier League.
Morten Gamst Pedersen sealed a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford, while David Bentley scored a hat-trick to help Rovers beat United 4-3 at Ewood Park a few months later.
Gareth Southgate (Sven Goran Eriksson)
Gareth Southgate earned 16 of his 57 England caps under the management of Sven Goran Eriksson and was the man who inflicted an 8-1 annihilation of the Swede in what would prove to be his last ever game as a Premier League manager in May 2008.
Middlesbrough and Manchester City were the clubs involved, with Southgate leading the former and Eriksson in charge of the latter.
Remarkably, it was only 2-0 in Middlesbrough’s favour at half-time, with City utterly capitulating in the second half and conceding six further goals. Within a few months, Sheikh Mansour had completed his takeover of the sky blues to set them on a brand new path.
Nuno Espirito Santo (Jose Mourinho)
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo was Jose Mourinho’s back-up goalkeeper to Vitor Baia at Porto, sitting on the bench as an understudy on the club’s 2003/04 Champions League run.
Their first managerial encounter ended in a draw when Wolves snatched a 1-1 result at Old Trafford in September 2018. But with Mourinho sacked by Manchester United not long after, it was almost another 18 months before they met in opposing dugouts again.
Second time around, Nuno got the win as his Wolves side won 3-2 over Mourinho’s Tottenham in north London. The visitors executed a near-perfect game plan in the five-goal thriller, with Matt Doherty, Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez scoring the goals.
Gordon Strachan (Sir Alex Ferguson)
Gordon Strachan played under Alex Ferguson for both Aberdeen, tasting domestic and European success, and Manchester United during his lengthy playing career, before eventually facing his old mentor as an opposing manager 20 times.
Strachan battled Sir Alex more than any other manager he ever faced and although he only won three times, those three wins came with three different clubs.
His Coventry side stunned Fergie’s United with two late goals to win 3-2 in the Premier League in 1997/98, while he led Southampton to 1-0 victory in 2003/04. A Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick also saw Strachan beat his old boss with Celtic in the Champions League in 2006/07.
Steven Gerrard (Brendan Rodgers)
In December 2018, Steven Gerrard guided Rangers to a first Old Firm victory over Celtic since 2012, beating his former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers in the process.
Midfielder Ryan Jack scored the only goal of the game at Ibrox and It was a win symbolic of Rangers’ ambition to finally challenge their rival’s domestic dominance after working their way back up the Scottish divisions.
As a player, Gerrard never came closer to winning the Premier League title with Liverpool than under Rodgers and the two worked together for three seasons in total at Anfield.
Zinedine Zidane (Carlo Ancelotti)
Zinedine Zidane was coached by Carlo Ancelotti for just under 18 months at Juventus from 1999 to 2001, with both men leaving Turin within a few weeks of each other. 12 years later they worked together again when Ancelotti arrived at Real Madrid and Zidane joined his staff.
After Zidane took over as Real coach himself, he went on to beat his former boss en-route to winning a second consecutive Champions League title in 2016/17, with Ancelotti by that time in charge at Bayern Munich.
Their quarter-final tie saw Zidane’s Real emerge victorious by a 6-3 aggregate score-line, with three of those goals scored in a one-sided extra-time at the end of the second leg.
Frank Lampard (Jose Mourinho)
It was under the management of Jose Mourinho that Frank Lampard emerged as a world-class player in the mid-2000s. But since moving into management himself in the last couple of years, the former Chelsea midfielder has beaten his old boss every time they have met.
A Carabao Cup clash against Manchester United was one of Lampard’s first big tests as manager of Derby County in 2018/19, with the Rams winning the tie on penalties at Old Trafford.
Since being appointed at Chelsea, Lampard has faced Mourinho twice more in clashes against his old mentor’s new club Tottenham. On both occasions, Chelsea have won, prevailing 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and 2-1 at Stamford Bridge a few weeks later.
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