Two old acquaintances from the benches return to see the faces in the final of the Champions next May 28 (9:00 p.m.). Carlo Ancelotti versus Jurgen Klopp. Two coaches who have seen each other in the Champions League, the FA Cup and the English Premierwith a balance favorable to the Italian coach: out of ten duels, the Reggiolo coach has won four times, has drawn three and has lost another three. But where he stands out mainly is in his clashes in the Champions League.
Their first clash was in the 2013-14 campaign, the year in which Madrid won the Décima. The Whites beat Dortmund on an April night in Madrid with a resounding 3-0 (goals from Bale, Isco and Cristiano Ronaldo), which sealed their spot in the semi-finals (there they knocked out Guardiola’s Bayern). In this way, the whites also got a painful thorn for having fallen before the set borussia the previous campaign, in a tremendous night of goals by Lewandowski, who scored four goals for them. The return, a week later, saw a defensive, intensity and tackling display from Casemiro in the top continental competition.
*Data updated as of May 6, 2022
Also being Ancelotti coach of Naples the faces were seen. Klopp had already become manager of Liverpool (signed as coach red in October 2015), when in the group stage a goal from Insigne, when the match was about to end in a goalless draw, decanted the victory towards the Partenopeos. It was Ancelotti’s second win over his German counterpart. The same result, but in this case, in favor of Liverpool’s interests, occurred in the second leg. There was no need to wait for the end: a goal from Salah in the 34th minute gave the victory to the German coach and, incidentally, eliminated the Neapolitans from the Champions League.
The Neapolitans would get the thorn out of said elimination in the 2019-20 campaignwhen they would beat the English 2-0 (goals from Mertens and Fernando Llorente) at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium and would draw one goal at Anfield, the work of Mertens for the Italians.
After six clashes in the Champions League, Ancelotti and Klopp saw each other again in English football, specifically in the Merseyside derbythe match between Liverpool and Everton: the derby that has been played the longest in the highest category of English football without interruption, since the 1962-63 campaign.
Their first confrontation came in an FA Cup match, which ended in victory for Pool (1-0, goal by Curtis Jones). That was Klopp’s last victory over Carletto. The other three following clashes between the toffees and the reds They have resulted in two draws and a win for the Italian (0-2, goals from Richarlison and Sigurdsson): that victory ended 23 derbies in 21 years (among all competitions) of defeats against their neighborsa streak that was the longest between two rivals in the Premier until then. Now they will face each other again in a Champions League finalwhere Ancelotti dominates with three wins in six games…
