Nobody quite knows how he does it. Carlo Ancelotti has coached big teams for 25 years. He has “only” won five league titles. But in the Champions League, the Italian is the only one in history with four triumphs. This is bad news for Erling Haaland. Manchester City lead the league and are in the final of the FA Cup. If they beat Real Madrid tonight, they are three games away from winning all three major titles in one season, which no one in England has managed except for Manchester United in 1999. This is the triple Haaland dreams of. But now he faces the biggest obstacle: A coach who “always” wins in the Champions League. In addition, Haaland plays for a coach who, in such matches, always loses. Carlo 2–0 Pep At least that’s how history in the Champions League has been written. The truth is that City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, has reached eight semi-finals, which is the most shared, and that he has won the tournament twice. But that was in 2009 and 2011 with Barcelona and Lionel Messi. Some say that Guardiola cannot win the given title without Messi. The search for the third title has been long and painful for Guardiola. He has lost one final and six semi-finals. At the same time, he is going for his 11th league title in 14 years as A-team coach, an incredible success that makes two titles in Europe seem small. In two of the semi-finals, Guardiola has met Ancelotti. He has lost 0–5 and 5–6. TWELVE YEARS WITHOUT: Pep Guardiola has come close a number of times, but has not won the Champions League since 2011. Photo: PAUL ELLIS / AFP If one man can crush Haaland’s dream, it is Ancelotti. It seems he has something special in this tournament. And that Guardiola is missing something. But what? The loose hand Perhaps the answer lies in some of the books Ancelotti has published. Ancelotti is considered a masterful motivator. He is cool and diplomatic. He scoffs. The players love him. He is usually calm and stylish. In Milan he took a helicopter to training. At Everton, he reacted to a dramatic goal by blowing on a cup of tea. When he had won La Liga with Real Madrid last year, he celebrated with the players on top of a bus, wearing a suit and sunglasses – with a cigar. CIGAR: Carlo Ancelotti with a cigar in his hand after last year’s league gold. Photo: Screenshot: Twitter When the team loses, someone always thinks that Ancelotti is too kind to the players. In Spain, they say he has a “loose hand” – the opposite of ruling with an iron fist. When he took over Bayern Munich from Guardiola in 2016, the players were said to have been shocked by how quickly the intensity dropped. Although Ancelotti has won all five major leagues in Europe, which is historic, this loose hand has not delivered as many league titles as other coaching legends. But in the Champions League it has worked. In the book “Calm Leadership” (2016), Ancelotti says that yelling and slapping never work. In a chapter, Paolo Maldini writes about his old boss, with whom he won the Champions League for Milan in 2003 and 2007. – He tells jokes just before the Champions League final, writes Maldini. – He talks about good dinners, he twists his eyebrows … and we win because we are relaxed. The Christmas tree But when people say that Ancelotti can only motivate, he gets annoyed. He believes that you cannot win four Champions Leagues without good tactics – and of course he is right. Nowadays, many coaches use the principles of Guardiola: High pressure and a lot of possession. Ancelotti has no clear style. He can both put the team in defense and keep up with party football. He is a master at finding pragmatic solutions. In Milan, the president Silvio Berlusconi had brought in a bunch of offensive playmakers. Berlusconi wanted everyone to play at once, which was impossible with 4-4-2 and 4-3-3. So Ancelotti switched to 4-3-2-1, an unusual formation without wings and with five central midfielders. On paper it looked like a Christmas tree. This is how he won the Champions League in 2007. When he published a book about his methods in 2013, he called it “My Christmas Tree”. EUROPEAN EXPERT: Carlo Ancelotti has been able to lift the trophy with “the big ears” a number of times. Here from 2007. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP This flexibility makes Ancelotti a raw tactician in cups. When he meets teams with different styles from other continents, he often finds solutions. Guardiola has tried to do the same, without succeeding as often. Müller’s theory As a tactician, Guardiola is also flexible, but he always wants to control the game. In the Champions League, he has also been accused of being behind tactical moves that are unnecessarily complicated, and which end up bringing down his own teams. In 2015, when he faced Barcelona away with Bayern, he used three defenders against the super trio of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez. Result: 0–3. In 2020, when he faced Lyon with City, he suddenly switched to five at the back. 1–3. In 2021, when he faced Chelsea with City in the final, he was without a defensive midfielder. 0–1. NEW TRAITS: Guardiola has often tried something new in important phases, but was clear at the press conference before Wednesday’s game that he should not overthink anything. Photo: Carl Recine / AP Much has been said about these features. Why does he do them? How much have they had to say? Perhaps the most interesting analysis belongs to Thomas Müller, who played for him in Bayern. According to Müller, Guardiola builds teams that are good at dominating against weaker teams. He achieves full control and minimizes the risk of something going wrong. But against big teams in the knockout rounds, Guardiola focuses more on the other team. – He is always a bit undecided as to whether he should contain the opponent’s strengths, or whether he should stick to his own style, Müller told the website The Athletic earlier this year. And then he added… – Sometimes it is not 100 percent clear what we are going to do. Another theory is that Guardiola’s systems are too rigid. His teams are machines with players who have specific tasks. If something happens that requires them to change the system quickly, they are too locked into their roles. Last year, journalist Miguel Delaney, from the British newspaper The Independent, found a trend that applied to eight of the 11 times Guardiola has been kicked out of the Champions League. They have all involved shorter periods – between three and 19 minutes – where his team have conceded two or three goals. BAD TREND: Guardiola’s teams have tended to falter when they get knocked out. Photo: Screenshot: Twitter When a trend is so clear for so long, it can’t possibly be a coincidence. New chance At the same time, you have to bring luck. Ancelotti will never forget when Milan gave away a 3-0 lead against Liverpool in 2005, but in the finals the margins have largely gone his way. In 2003, Milan won on penalties against Juventus. In 2014, Real Madrid equalized three minutes into extra time. In the semi-final last year, they scored two goals in extra time against City, a drama even he struggled to deal with. – If I don’t die today, I am immortal, said an exhausted Ancelotti afterwards. Guardiola has often seen his teams dominate without winning. The collapse last year was unbelievable. In 2019, City conceded an away goal against Tottenham after a marginal offside. In 2016, Bayern were knocked out by Atlético Madrid – again on away goals – after Müller had missed a penalty. But now Guardiola has a second chance. When City beat Bayern in the quarter-finals in April, midfielder Bernardo Silva spoke of how they had learned from past mistakes by letting their opponents have more of the ball. What’s more, City now has a high-profile jærbu in the team. Perhaps it is Haaland who will be needed to fool Ancelotti.
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The cup genius who can crush Haaland’s dream – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
