Real Madrid – Manchester City is not only a confrontation between clubs, but also a duel between Ancelotti and Guardiola. Telling the story of their meeting

Today’s super confrontation in the semi-final of the European Cup No. 1 is another version of the “early final”. And this stamp is justified: unlike the “Italian” part of the grid, there are two undoubted superclubs here, with cosmic squads and fabulous budgets, which have not crawled out of the late stages of the Champions League in recent years.

And, no less important, today two coaches will meet in a duel, to which you can rightfully try on the prefix “super-”. Are there many, besides them, active specialists who can boast of victories in more than one elite championship, let’s add the main European Cup to these triumphs? Mourinho, Klopp… Have you forgotten anyone?

Golden hands of Pope Carlo

63-year-old Carlo Ancelotti is a living (and very cheerful) legend. He was fine as a player too – two ECCH with Milan. And only then … The only coach who won all five top championships – La Liga was the last to submit to him last year. Four-time Champions League winner (with two different clubs), and that’s just as a manager. Well, and so on, it may take more than one paragraph to paint the regalia, but we are still not singing a panegyric here.

Short. After working as an assistant to Sacchi in the national team (2nd place in the 1994 World Cup), Carlo accepted Reggiana – and immediately returned her to Serie A. The second independent experience – and again success, entering the Champions League with the sensational Parma. Then there was the eight-year Milan era, golden entries in the Premier League, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga …

The period at Everton, and the very fact of appearing in this club, seemed like stagnation, if not degradation, of the career of an aging specialist (he had just turned 60 then). But no, Carlo again went to Madrid from his feet and once again proved everything to everyone.

Magic HoGwa

Josep Guardiola, who was born a dozen years later than his counterpart (strictly speaking, 11 and a half), also began his head coaching career at 36. To begin with, with the second team of Barcelona, ​​immediately lifting it from Tercera to Segunda B. Laporta immediately took a chance make a bet on a promising specialist – and, damn it, turned out to be 100% right.

Pep with his native club won everything in the first season. He secured this with new titles, after which he went to nightmare the Bundesliga first (he worked in Bavaria just before Anchi), and then, for the seventh year already, the Premier League.

The Catalan has long suffered from the gestalt of a lack of international triumphs. His last victory in the Champions League is already 12 years old, and in the City Museum, despite a bunch of internal cups and billions of dollars of injections, a niche prepared for the “big-eared” trophy is still gathering dust.

All the stars seem to have aligned this season. The townspeople gained incredible power, supplemented the squad with a forward-terminator, and smashed opponents of any level on all fronts. What else is needed for happiness? Even the risky tactical experiments of Guardiola, which often came out to him as a European side in past years, now seem to be for the good.

There is at least one “but”. The person of the coach-rival.

Face-to-face meetings. Warm up

As footballers Carlo and Josep did not have time to meet. From 1990 (the beginning of the career of the first) to 1992 (the completion of the second), Barcelona did not play with Milan. But Ancelotti the coach vs Guardiola the player – it was. During the short Italian stage of the ex-captain of Barcelona.

This single incident took place exactly twenty years ago, on May 10, 2003. In the penultimate round of the championship, courageous Brescia Carlo Mazzone, a strong middle peasant who did not pretend to anything, slammed Milan at home, who was desperately fighting for a place in the top three (and at the same time going to Ancelotti’s first coaching victory in the European Cup No. 1).

The only goal was scored by Appiah with the filing of Tare, who replaced Toni. Guardiola played as a defensive midfielder throughout the match. Like the great Baggio. Ancelotti, by the way, later regretted that he did not buy Roberto in Parma – they say, he did not fit the 4-4-2 style.

But let’s move on to, so to speak, profile confrontations.

Face to face: 1-2. First semi-final

In order to meet don Carlo for the first time in a coaching duel, Josep had to change Barcelona to Bayern. The confrontation happened – that’s a coincidence – at the stage of the Champions League semi-finals.

Bayern, who had already secured the league title, were considered the favourites. She dominated the first match in Madrid. But she lost – everything was decided by an early goal from Benzema. In addition to Karim, Modric and Carvajal were already in the dust for Real Madrid. On the Bavaria side, Neuer and Müller have survived to this day. And there, Alaba and Kroos, the current Blancos, played at the base.

A lot of people were looking forward to revenge in the answer. And how did these “who” whistled into the puddle! The guests destroyed the toothless tiki-taka with standards and counterattacks. The result was a “removal of the body” – the doubles of Ramos and Ronaldo issued the biggest home defeat of Guardiola in his entire coaching career. Later, he, already the manager of City, would lose twice more with a score of 0:4. But away, Barcelona (!) And Everton (not yet Ancelottievsky).

Face to face: 3-6. English revenge

Catalan revenge lasted a year and a half and four fights. Having waited for Ancelotti to accept the weak (relative to the Citizens) Everton, Pep immediately began to iron him. Four meetings from January 2020 to May 2021, four wins. The last of them is 5:0 at all, with Aguero’s farewell double.

Face to face: 7-8. Semi-final deja vu

Less than a year later, the prankster draw again brought two top coaches to the ½ finals of the Champions League. How Real Madrid traveled through those playoffs, you must remember very well. With constant stumbling, overcoming, mind-blowing comebacks … and, of course, a bit of luck – without it, great anywhere.

In Manchester, Creamy had to burn with a big score – the final 3:4 instead of 2:5 was perceived as a gift of fate. For Man City, all those who had previously upset Ancelotti, the coach of Irisok scored: Foden, Silva, Jesus, KDB … And as part of Madrid, again, like eight years ago, Benzema was enchanting.

The return match became truly legendary. When Mahrez opened the scoring in the 73rd minute, the skeptics rejoiced: well, that’s all for sure! But no: Rodrigo’s double in the very end, and the decisive penalty from the restless Karim. Accordingly, the Italian again returned the initiative, taking revenge on the Spaniard (Catalan!) for recent humiliations.

The overall balance is as follows: 8 matches, win score 5:3 in favor of Guardiola. The goal difference is also in his direction, 17:13. However, all this positive was stuffed “at the expense” of Everton. But as for the semi-finals of the Champions League – here so far Pep is powerless in front of Carlo.

According to various scenarios, objective and subjective, Manchester City is considered the favorite of both the semi-final duel and the entire tournament. Bookmakers won’t let you lie: odds per pass are categorically skewed in favor of the English champion.

But the picture will not look so unambiguous if the logic card is risked to be beaten by the statistics of coaching confrontations. Of course, statistics are often cunning, and any series will ever end. But this time?