Valverde to reach his centenary as Barça coach

This Wednesday, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will face each other in the return leg of the semifinals of the Copa del Rey (9.00pm CET). The culers visit the Santiago Bernabéu looking to earn a place in what would be their sixth consecutive Cup final. This will be the 40th Clásico for Leo Messi, but it will also be Ernesto Valverde's 100th match as Barça coach.

The coach will arrive in Madrid with a very favourable record. So far, of the 99 games he has taken charge of, he has won 67, drawn 23 and has lost only nine. Therefore, Valverde has 67.7% of wins, with 238 goals in favour (an average of 2.4 goals per game) and only 80 against.

Of those 238, Messi scored the most (78), followed by Suárez (48), Coutinho (18) and Dembélé (17). In addition, Rakitic is the one who played most games (92), with Messi and Sergio Busquets just behind (86). As for minutes, it's Piqué who has played the most, with a total of 7,294, followed by Ter Stegen (7,290) and Luis Suárez (7,236).

A title every 33 matches

It should also be remembered that the coach has already won three titles in this period: a League and a Copa del Rey in his first year, and - at the moment - a Spanish Super Cup during this 2018/19 campaign, a season in which his team are still alive in three competitions (League, Cup, Champions League).

Valverde needs another 44 games to enter the top 10 of coaches that have overseen the most games in the history of Barça. Here's the ranking: