Ancelotti and Gattuso, who have been hand in hand at Milan for eight seasons, open the game on Wednesday after a fight at the end of 2019
For eight seasons, Carlo Ancelotti and Gennaro Gattuso were thick and thin at Milan. The first, as a coach, and the second, his extension on the field, formed a great partnership that helped the Rossoneri win 11 titles, including two Champions League titles. Carletto valued Rino as a brother. His protégé regarded him as something of a sports father. The manager’s departure from Reggiolo to Chelsea in 2009 ended a fruitful alliance, but from a distance they continued to show lavish signs of affection and admiration for more than a decade.
However, at the end of 2019, something broke. Napoli free-falled Ancelotti and threw himself into Gattuso’s arms. Heat gave way to ice. Three years after that relief that Ancelotti felt like a shot because Gattuso had already said ‘yes’ to Aurelio De Laurentiis when the head of the partenopean entity had not yet fired him, the teacher and student will settle in Arabia Saudi.
Real Madrid and Valencia open the competition in the Spanish Super Cup with a first semi-final marked by the duel of their quarreling strategists. On the one hand, the scholar Ancelotti is chasing the sixth Super Cup of his career and the second in a row with Real Madrid, which he already led to the trophy in Riyadh last year. On the other hand, his pupil hopes to take advantage of the lessons learned to add a second career win off the bench after winning the Italian Cup in 2020 at the helm of Naples.
“We had very nice moments, we won two champions. They are memories forever. In retrospect, the relationship has not always been good. We have had personal problems, but I don’t want to talk about this,” Ancelotti admitted at the press conference he offered on the eve of the morbid reunification. Gattuso was more explicit. “When he trained at Napoli, I was going to work. At that point the press was talking about the team being bad and we had a problem. But he knows I have a lot of respect for him. It’s just a work problem. We’ve won a lot. We are talking about one of the best coaches in the world and from a personal and football point of view I have a lot of respect for him,” he insisted.
But there is much more at stake than a personal dispute, as Real Madrid and Valencia have to even each other out. The whites defend the scepter with which they inaugurated a series of successes twelve months ago that culminated in the ‘orejona’ that Marcelo raised at the Stade de France. That Spanish Super Cup blew morale into a side that had gone 18 months without dominating any competition and used that win as a detonator in their ensuing assault on the League and Champions League. Now the tournament can serve the Chamartín team to make up for the painful setback against Villarreal that saw them lose their wheel with Barça. “After last’s defeat, we want to win again,” Courtois said.
The spotlight is on the defensive porosity of Real Madrid, a side who have kept just five clean sheets so far this season. Healing this wound is a priority for Ancelotti, annoyed by his footballers for not giving the ‘do’ of the chest in that facet. “The defensive aspect is not one of quality, but one of mentality and sacrifice,” said a coach, reading them the introduction in his diplomatic way, as he rarely has in the press room. «The training signals were good, so I was surprised by the game against Villarreal. We have to get things right again,” he insisted.
Real Madrid will face the event without Alaba and Tchouaméni, who were grounded due to soleus disorders. Two weight losses to which is added Mendy’s doubt, also absent from this Tuesday’s session in the Saudi capital due to an overload in the same muscle. The good news for whites is the return of Carvajal. Kroos is proving to be an anchor in a midfield that will see Valverde return, leading to Rodrygo’s entry in attack.
The pressure is also on the side of Valencia, who have won just one of their last eight league matches and have fond memories of meeting Real Madrid in Jeddah three years ago when goals from Kroos, Isco and Modric wiped them out. and white the passage to the final. Only three players from that ring – Diakhaby, Paulista and Gayà – survive in Gattuso’s current squad. The Italian, dealing with the losses of Nico and Castillejo, is calling on Kluivert’s defection and the punch of the unflappable Cavani as key assets in the pursuit of what would become the batclub’s second Super Cup.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
