With the victory in the final against Liverpool (1-0), Real Madrid wins its fourteenth Champions League e Carlo Ancelotti writes another page of football history. The coach of the blancos, who this year had already become the first ever to win all five major European leagues (Italy in 2003/2004 with Milan; England in 2009/2010 with Chelsea; France in 2012/2013 with PSG; Germany in 2016/2017 with Bayern Munich and Spain a month ago with Real Madrid), has today also the only one to have done Champions League poker.
The 4 Champions League won on the bench by Ancelotti
In fact, there are four Cups with big ears on Ancelotti's coaching bulletin board: the first with Milan, in the all-Italian final against Juve in 2002/2003, which ended on penalties; the second always with the Rossoneri, in 2006/2007, with Inzaghi's brace that beated Gerrard's Liverpool, avenging the bloody comeback suffered two years earlier at the hands of the reds (from 3-0 to 3-3); and then again "the tenth" of Real won in 2013/2014 in a final that was a Madrid derby, drawing in the 93rd minute with Sergio Ramos to then triumph over Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time; In the end, the last triumph against Liverpool by Klopp, who arrived after a series of daring comebacks against Psg, Chelsea and Manchester City, decided by a Vinicius goal and secured by one memorable performance by goalkeeper Courtois.
Detach Paisley and Zidane
Ancelotti thus detaches in this particular classification Bob paisley e Zinedine Zidane, both stopped at three victories as coaches in the Champions League, moreover always with the teams from the last final: Paisley triumphed three times on the bench of Liverpool (1977, 1978, 1981), while Zizou, more recently, on that of Real (2016, 2017, 2018).
Ancelotti: "I told Florentino Perez that we would win the Liga and the Champions League"
“I'm happy: we've reached the end of a difficult competition – commented Ancelotti after Saturday night's success – We suffered but we won thanks to the quality, concentration, experience and heart of this team. Perhaps we didn't play aesthetic and extraordinary football, but take the risk of coming out with the ball and chain from behind was not the case".
Ancelotti then revealed a background on a key moment of the season: “On 20 March, when we lost 4-0 at home against Barcelona, Florentino Perez reassured me. I told him: 'Ok, don't worry, we will win the championship and the Champions League'. Actually, I told him a bit like this… But, in the end…".
