Ancelotti recalls Champions League finals with Milan and working under ‘demanding’ Sacchi | OneFootball

Carlo Ancelotti has recalled the Champions League finals he managed with AC Milan, and how he nearly ended up at rivals Inter.

Ancelotti remains deeply beloved by the Milan faithful having led them to two Champions League wins as a manager in 2003 and 2007. He is the most successful manager in the history of the competition, having won the trophy a record five times, and two more as a player.

While there continues to be talk of ‘Don Carlo’ returning to his beloved Rossoneri at some point in the near future, for now there are just the memories to look back on. With 15 trophies across his playing and coaching career at Milan, few embody the club’s winning spirit like him.

Ancelotti spoke on RSI and recalled some of his most prominent memories both as a player and since becoming a head coach over two decades ago. Calciomercato.com relayed his comments.

Is it true you had a trial at Inter while playing for Parma?

“They didn’t sign me because it was said that the president of Parma, Ernesto Ceresini, had raised the price after the match. I have a wonderful memory because for the first time I played with my idols: Bordon, Canuti, Bini, Altobelli… Even though my real idol as a kid was Sandro Mazzola.”

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And is it true that Sacchi wanted you at Milan, but not so much Berlusconi?

“I had had two injuries that had kept me out for two years. There were some doubts on a physical level. Sacchi pushed hard and I went to Milan. Sacchi’s arrival changed the methodology and philosophy of the game in Italy: he was a great innovator.

“We struggled a bit at the beginning but after December the team was flying, we were really happy to take to the field. It was a different kind of football, it was a different way of coaching: before him there was a warm-up, a 25-minute game and shooting practice.

“With him there was possession work, defensive tactics, attacking combinations, strength work, aerobics. After the first month-long preparation with Sacchi my mother didn’t recognise me: I had lost so much weight that my mother had difficulty recognising me. Then she gave me a hand with her cooking.”

How was Sacchi with you?

“He was a demanding coach with everyone. He had big clashes with van Basten on a tactical level. But we discussed, he didn’t get angry. He loved to talk about that. He was demanding, he asked for a lot of concentration.”

That evening under the lights of the Velodrome in Marseille. How did you experience that situation?

“We experienced it badly. It was a very complicated match, we didn’t have much hope of getting through to the next round, we experienced it as a decision that we had to respect by force of circumstances. It was a decision of the club. Nothing more.”

So a player must always do what the club says, even if he has a different idea?

“In this world, the player and the coach are the weakest part. We are not the ones who make decisions about the calendars, about how to structure things. It is always the clubs, the federations, the leagues, FIFA and UEFA. We will always be the weakest part of this world.”

And can’t anything be done?

“Hope that the bodies that decide all this come to an agreement. But the economic aspect prevails and finding an agreement between each of these bodies becomes difficult, which is why now we risk playing 80 games a year.”

Tell us about the penalty shootout in the 2003 final at Old Trafford…

“In the 2003 final I sent three defenders to shoot, Serginho, Kaladze and Nesta, because I couldn’t find anyone else. It’s also true that I had taken off Pirlo and Rui Costa, but it wasn’t easy to find five shooters.

“Which I found in 2005 [against Liverpool in Istanbul], all good, except that there was Dudek who, with today’s rules, would have meant taking all the penalties again [he was off his line].”

What happened in Istanbul?

“I complimented the players for what they had done, I reiterate the concept that the English never give up and that it would have been important to do well at the start of the second half. Then what happened happened.

“We started the second half well, Shevchenko had a ball and we could have gone 4-0 up, then there were six minutes of madness. But then we started again and we did well. Of all the finals played by my teams, that one is the best on a technical level.”

With the victory in 2007, did you free yourself from what had happened two years earlier?

“Yes. It was a sign of destiny. The fact of replaying a final after two years was a sign of destiny.”

That goal from Inzaghi, who knew little about Pirlo’s free-kick until it hit him…

“I could tell you it was a rehearsed plan but no (laughs). Pirlo shooting at Inzaghi… Just think, it had also happened in a derby months earlier. Instead, the second goal, Kaká’s assist, was a rehearsed plan.”