By Sulaimon Jamiu
Thanks to Real Madrid’s qualification for the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea on Tuesday, Carlo Ancelotti became the first manager to reach this stage in 4 different decades.
Qualified at the expense of Chelsea for the semi-finals of the competition, Real Madrid enjoyed yet another memorable European night at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. At the end of a completely crazy scenario, Carlo Ancelotti and his band will carefully observe their future adversary this Wednesday, Manchester City or Atletico Madrid.
But if Karim Benzema, Luka Modric or even Eduardo Camavinga have drawn all the light on them, the Italian coach has also achieved an extremely rare performance. This semi-final qualification, the eighth of his career (only Guardiola and Mourinho do better), allows him to become the first coach in history to reach the last four in four different decades.
The first dates back to 1999 with Juventus, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals by Manchester United, eventual winners, just three months after taking office with the Old Lady. In the 2000s, he participated in the great hours of AC Milan, reaching the semi-finals 4 times in 5 years, for two final victories and a lost final.
Finally, with Real Madrid he won the 2014 edition before being eliminated in the semi-finals in 2015 and then in 2021 by Chelsea.
This year, he will try to go all the way in order to win his 4th Big Ears Cup and thus become the only most successful coach in the history of the competition.
