Manchester City have received a warning from Carlo Ancelotti’s past mistakes in advance of the Champions League final. In the second leg of the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday, City thrashed Ancelotti’s Real Madrid 4-0 to win the tie 5-1 on aggregate.
Pep Guardiola’s men dominated the defending champions in the first half, with Bernardo Silva scoring twice. While Los Blancos attempted to rally after the interval, an Eder Militao own goal and a Julian Alvarez stoppage-time finish demonstrated Manchester City’s superiority.
‘You don’t always get what you deserve’ – Ancelotti warns favourites Manchester City
After defeating Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, Manchester City humiliated the 14-time European champions and will face Inter in the final next month as heavy favourites. City are now only three wins away from football the treble, with their local rivals Manchester United being the last English club to do so in 1999.
To win the Premier League, City must defeat Chelsea on Sunday. They are in the FA Cup final and are already heavy favourites to win the Champions League final against Inter Milan next month. And no one can doubt that City will earn it since they are absolutely unbeatable at the moment and by far the finest team in Europe.
Yet, Ancelotti’s experience in the Champions League final in 2005 will serve as a cautionary note to Guardiola and his Manchester City team when they face Inter. The parallels between the final iteration and this year’s rendition are striking. Both the finals will be held at Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium, and each will feature a clear favourite and an unfancied underdog. However, in 2005, things did not go as planned.
Ancelotti led a Milan team that had some of the era’s most famous players. Cafu, Paolo Maldini, Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko, Clarence Seedorf, and Andrea Pirlo started for the Rossoneri that day. They were up against a Liverpool team that had overcome more favoured opponents throughout the campaign, notably Juventus and Chelsea, but had had a terrible domestic season.
Prior to the game, Reds defender Jamie Carragher argued that Liverpool were not nearly as good as the team that had won the UEFA Cup Final four years earlier. Milan, as predicted, surged into a 3-0 halftime lead. It appeared to be a blowout, with Liverpool hardly putting a glove on their illustrious opponents.
But then Milan’s game unravelled. Liverpool staged a second-half comeback, scoring three goals in a spectacular six-minute span to square the game. The score stayed 3-3 into extra time and was settled on a penalty shootout, when Liverpool goalie Jerzy Dudek came up to stop two spot penalties and seal the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’.
Of course, to a newer generation of Manchester City supporters, the game may seem like a distant memory. It does, however, serve as a caution to Guardiola’s side not to become too comfortable in the final against Inter. In 2007, Ancelotti told Sky Sports about the shocking evening:
“In Istanbul, Milan played well and deserved to win the Champions League. But that’s football. You don’t always get what you deserve.”
Manchester City will meet Inter Milan in the final on June 10 in Istanbul, after the Italian side defeated local rivals AC Milan 3-0 on aggregate in the second semi-final encounter to reach their first final since 2010. City fans and players should take Ancelotti’s advice to heart even if Guardiola’s men are the strongest team in Europe since anything may happen on June 10 against a tenacious Inter side.