Less than two weeks in the past, Todd Boehly, the proprietor of Chelsea Football Club, initiated contact with the extremely revered former participant, Frank Lampard, to entice him again to the group in an effort to restore stability.
In one other world, it may need been Carlo Ancelotti on the road to the American.
Instead, Ancelotti returns to the Stamford Bridge dug-out Tuesday strictly as an opponent, guiding Real Madrid within the Champions League quarterfinal second-leg conflict.
Madrid’s veteran president Florentino Perez introduced the Italian again for a second stint on the helm after Zinedine Zidane walked away once more in 2021.
While they path Barcelona in La Liga this season, Madrid are exhibiting each signal that they may add a fifteenth European crown come the ultimate in Istanbul on June 10.
Madrid carved out a 2-0 lead towards the Blues within the first sport with objectives from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio, and so they may simply have added extra.
At the opposite finish, former Chelsea duo Thibaut Courtois and Antonio Rudiger made necessary saves and blocks to depart Lampard’s aspect empty-handed.
Ancelotti’s return to Chelsea evokes heat recollections of one of many best ever Premier League sides, which he led to the membership’s first-ever league and FA Cup double in 2010 – they had been halcyon days in stark distinction to the Blues’ current hunch.
The Italian’s Chelsea aspect featured huge characters together with Didier Drogba, John Terry, Michael Ballack and Lampard himself, and so they racked up 7-0, 7-1 and 8-0 triumphs on the Bridge as they strolled to home glory.
Chelsea’s present expensively-assembled hodgepodge of gamers lacks each the management and high quality of that group, as was laid painfully naked of their defeat on the Santiago Bernabeu final week.
“I am sad, yes,” mentioned Ancelotti earlier than that conflict. “I’ve a improbable reminiscence of this membership, of the folks which can be nonetheless working there.
“I’m a supporter of Chelsea, in fact, as a result of I spent two very nice years there.
“I think and I hope Lampard will be able to do a fantastic job with them.”
It was a beneficiant line from Ancelotti, however he’ll hope his coach is nowhere close to as magnanimous on Tuesday beneath the lights in London.
Ancelotti was let go by then-owner Roman Abramovich in 2011, ending his transient however memorable two-season spell in cost.
Safe arms
Despite not being the primary selection – or second, or third – for the job, Ancelotti was chosen as a secure pair of arms at Madrid and helped win the Spanish title final season.
Like Zidane earlier than him, is exhibiting glorious man administration is an important talent for Los Blancos coaches – though not the one one, as he was at pains to level out.
“I am ‘fantastic’ at managing but there are other things, because this team is well-trained,” mentioned Ancelotti earlier than the primary leg.
“If we win the Copa del Rey, we will have won every title possible in two years and there are teams who won’t win that in their whole lives.”
Ancelotti has stored squad gamers like Dani Ceballos, Nacho Fernandez and Asensio each hungry and useful, with the latter netting once more at Cadiz on the weekend.
Most of them, anyway.
Former Chelsea star Eden Hazard has remained a fringe presence and his former followers will hope to not see him on Tuesday – if the Belgian seems, it should imply Madrid have clinched development and the important thing gamers are being rested.
“The door is open and it’s up to us to kick it open further,” mentioned Lampard after the first-leg defeat, angling for a comeback.
It can be music to Ancelotti’s ears, along with his group so deadly on the break towards determined sides and the coach clever sufficient to play to their strengths.
The 63-year-old has lifted the trophy six instances, twice as a participant, and 4 instances within the dug-out and just lately noticed he’s approaching his 1,three hundredth sport as a coach.
His expertise and stability are in stark distinction to Chelsea’s haphazard venture, and on Tuesday they could assist him spotlight chasms the place he as soon as left silverware and recollections.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
