Ancelotti-Guardiola, the recent classic of the ‘Champions’

Photo Credit To Agencia EFE

Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola meet again this Tuesday in what will be the seventh match in which they face each other in the Champions League, a competition in which they have been paired in the last three editions and in which ‘Carletto’ has the face to face in your favor.

In total, 11 matches, with two more to be played in the quarterfinals of this edition.

An overall in which Guardiola has taken the measure of Ancelotti, with seven victories. Of course, five of them were when the Italian was leading an Everton with objectives and ambitions lower than those of City in the Premier League.

Eleven matches with only one draw, last season’s 1-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu, and in which the scoring balance is for Pep’s team with 26 goals in favor and 15 against.

The ‘Champions’ is from Ancelotti…

Of course, in the Champions League it is Ancelotti who leads the way.

In 2014 they faced each other for the first time. In the semi-finals, when Guardiola was leading Bayern Munich. Karim Benzema’s 1-0 win at the Santiago Bernabéu left everything open for a return in which, as the Spanish coach recognized in the book ‘Herr Pep’, he made his big mistake.

“The 0-4 against Madrid in ‘Champions’ is my worst mistake as a coach,” he said in relation to a match in which, in his words, he decided to be guided by the impetus of external agents and not by his own ideas.

Eight years passed until the two met again in the Champions League. In another semi-final tie that entered the history books of Real Madrid.

Real Madrid won the fourteenth orejona on May 28, 2022 in Paris, in the final against Liverpool. A 1-0 that made Ancelotti the most successful coach in the competition and that came after beating City in the semifinals in the third straight comeback in the playoffs, and the most unlikely of all.

In the first leg, the white team survived a 2-0 in 11 minutes from the English team. They went 3-1 and 4-2 down, but ended with a 4-3 that gave the Madridistas hope for the return, trusting in the Bernabéu factor.

However, for 90 minutes it was a mirage. A memory of what was lived, without more. Even shortly before the 90th minute, with the score at 0-1, white fans headed home and silence reigned in the Madrid stadium. Until Rodrygo appeared.