El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, today, Sunday, at the Camp Nou stadium, marks the first meeting between coaches Hansi Flick and José Mourinho in the history of Spanish football.
The pair have crossed paths once before, though. Rewind to December 2019, when the German was in charge of Bayern Munich and the Portuguese had just taken over at Tottenham.
That Champions League group-stage clash ended in a 3-1 win for Bayern at the Allianz Arena, according to Spanish radio station "Cadena SER".
Back then the context was a world away from today's. Flick had taken the Bayern job after the dismissal of Niko Kovač, while Mourinho had landed at Tottenham a few weeks earlier to replace Mauricio Pochettino.
Both men were opening a new chapter at their club. They met in the final round of the group stage, with both teams already through to the round of 16.
The match opened at a fierce tempo. Kingsley Coman put Bayern ahead in the 14th minute, but Tottenham hit straight back through Ryan Sessegnon, who levelled six minutes later.
Spurs had recovered from the early blow, yet Bayern showed their killer edge again right before the break. Thomas Müller struck in the 45th minute to restore the hosts' lead at 2-1.
Philippe Coutinho sealed it after the interval. The Brazilian fired home the decisive third in the 64th minute, wrapping up Bayern's win and keeping Flick's perfect group-stage record intact.
Defeat was one Mourinho could not avoid as Tottenham boss, although the result changed nothing in the group standings for either side.
That night proved a sign of things to come. Flick lifted the Champions League in August 2020, seeing off Paris Saint-Germain in the final to cap a historic campaign of six trophies with Bayern, transforming the German from an emergency fix into the architect of one of European football's most dominant projects.
Mourinho, meanwhile, faced the task of hauling Tottenham back among the elite. The Portuguese arrived to revive a side that had reached the Champions League final just months earlier, yet his London spell ended without a single major trophy.
One more detail matters here. Bayern Munich had thrashed Tottenham 7-2 in London in October 2019, but that game does not count as a Flick-Mourinho precedent, since neither man was in charge of his team at the time.
Nearly seven years on, their paths meet again in utterly different surroundings. The German now coaches Barcelona, the Portuguese leads Real Madrid. Flick won the only previous encounter, but El Clásico hands Mourinho the chance to rewrite history.