Ancelotti made his Champions League debut against Sparta in 1997. Had he won then, he would have surpassed the legendary Ferguson by now

Carlo Ancelotti had another victorious Champions League night on Wednesday night, equalling legendary Sir Alex Ferguson’s record for most wins in the millionaire competition. At the moment, the two have an identical 102 successful matches and if Real Madrid beat Shakhtar next week, he will become the coaching king of Europe.

Let’s go back for a moment to 1997, when Ancelotti’s AC Parma were introduced to Prague. It was the Italian coach’s debut in the Champions League. His squad included players such as Crespo, Baggio, Cannavaro and Buffon.

However, he failed to succeed against his then rival Chovanec and the match ended in a goalless draw. The rematch did not go well for the Italians either, ending in another draw, this time 2-2.

Parma finished second with 9 points, but Dortmund, who reached the semi-finals with 15 points, was the first to advance to the semi-finals, where they lost to Real Madrid, the winner of the whole competition.

And it is at the White Ballet that the 63-year-old Reggiolo native is writing his never-ending story, which he will most likely top with a record next week.

On Wednesday, he caught up with Sir Ferguson in the number of Champions League wins, both coaches have collected 102, but Ancelotti will push that mark even higher, he only needs to celebrate the victory over Shakhtar, who were beaten 2-1 in the first meeting.

The Italian coach has already dominated the Champions League 4 times, the first time was in the 2002/03 season with AC Milan, with whom he also repeated it in the 2006/07 season. After that, he tried his hand at Chelsea and PSG, before returning to the Santiago Bernabéu in the summer of 2013 to lift the trophy for the third time.

He subsequently travelled again for a while, coaching Bayern Munich, Napoli and Everton. At the time, everyone thought he would soon be saying goodbye to his craft as there was talk that he was no longer up to it. In the summer of 2021, however, he returned to Madrid and once again celebrated success.

The Italian elegance deserves great admiration already for his coaching career, which is far from over. As Klopp said

Source: UEFA, Twitter