Old Trafford is where Sir Alex Ferguson has defined himself but the stadium is also crucial to Carlo Ancelotti’s life. It is where he won his first title as a manager, the Champions League. We’re not counting the 1999 Intertoto Cup.
Looking back on 2003, when AC Milan beat Juventus in Manchester to rule Europe, Ancelotti shrugged. “My career until that time was not so good,” he said. “A lot of people thought I was a coach for the second place, not for the first place. I was second with Parma, second with Juventus. It was my most important [victory].”
He recalled “a fantastic night” of celebrations at the team hotel. “We played football on the golf course until five in the morning with [Gennaro] Gattuso while [Adriano] Galliani [Milan’s chief executive] slept with the cup.”
Now Old Trafford — and a concept of which Ancelotti is fond, destiny — beckons again. Ancelotti says: “I don’t think [Chelsea] require I win a trophy to save my position,” but everybody knows that with super-yacht, art treasures and private army already crossed off, Champions League trophy is the remaining item on Roman Abramovich’s must-have list.
Ancelotti’s pedigree in Europe was the principal reason for hiring him and memories of last season’s domestic double will not comfort Abramovich should Chelsea fail to progress after the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United on Tuesday week. “We know very well how important it is for us to win this title,” Ancelotti admitted. “It’s not an obsession, it’s a dream.”
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Even the opposition can see that. Normally, Ferguson only considers United’s goals and motivations but the club politics of Chelsea was on his mind as he weighed up Wednesday’s first leg at Stamford Bridge. “I think Abramovich has earmarked this as the one he wants to win and that’s why they signed Fernando Torres,” said Ferguson. “That is the obvious reason to bring in a player for £50m in January, with four months of the season left. To me, that’s the obvious target — the European Cup.”
He declined to speculate on whether the owner’s mania would enhance or inhibit Chelsea’s performance. “I’ve said it seems to be the target for Abramovich but I don’t know how that impacts on them,” Ferguson mused. What seems certain is that oligarchical input will affect the way Chelsea try to beat United, if not their chances of doing so.
Torres has not scored since January 22, when he was still a Liverpool player. In two months he has managed one shot on target in the Premier League and he was on the bench at Stoke yesterday. But Abramovich bought him to play. With his other January recruit, David Luiz, ineligible, Abramovich will be especially keen for his prize signing to have an influence against United. Ancelotti says he is under no pressure to choose Torres but the Spaniard seems first in the pecking order, despite his iffy personal performance numbers.
“Yeah, yeah, I know this but I don’t like to watch a statistic. Statistics are important in football but not so important,” said Ancelotti regarding Torres’ one on-target shot. “The statistic doesn’t show how he is moving for the team.”
Ancelotti spoke of using Torres alongside Nicolas Anelka should he decide to counterattack against United and fielding Didier Drogba if power was preferable. Conspicuously, he didn’t mention a Torres-Drogba partnership and while he dismisses as “bar sport [pub talk]” a suggestion that Drogba is reluctant to give Torres the ball when they play, Drogba and Anelka passed to each other as often (eight times) in 68 minutes when paired against FC Copenhagen as Drogba and Torres did in three games together against Liverpool, United and Blackpool. And at Bloomfield Road one “pass” was a kick-off.
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Dropping Drogba, which seems Ancelotti’s most likely ploy on Wednesday, would deprive Chelsea of a weapon who has been a consistent factor in a dominant run against United. Chelsea have won the past three head-to-heads and lost only three in 19 against United (treating the 2008 Champions League final as a draw — incidentally, Ancelotti says John Terry will not be used in any penalty shootout). Drogba has exerted muscular influence at many points in the winning sequence. Torres has his own positive history with United but Drogba is reliably dangerous and with Rio Ferdinand likely still to be absent, Drogba would relish testing Chris Smalling or Jonny Evans.
Torres’ arrival coincided with Ancelotti moving away from 4-3-3 (or variants), towards 4-4-2. Yet another regular Chelsea ploy versus United has been crowding central midfield, outnumbering them there and using the prodigious stamina and physiques of such as Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel and Ramires to overpower their foes. This has particularly been a pattern when Ferguson has used the deft but by no means dynamic pairing of Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick. With Darren Fletcher recovering from stomach trouble and Anderson just back from injury, Ferguson could well pick Scholes and Carrick again at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, if there is no Drogba and no central three, will be trying to beat United without their own blueprint for doing so.
Ferguson has not won at Stamford Bridge since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ruud van Nistelrooy were his front line. That was nine years ago. Meanwhile, Chelsea have won three times at Old Trafford in their past seven visits. Ferguson is adamant his opponents have prospered not because of any psychological or playing edge but because of good fortune and beneficent refereeing.
“I think they’ve had important breaks against us, I really do,” he said. “I think everyone recognises that in the last four games the major decisions have gone Chelsea’s way. We beat them in the European final, we were the better team in that final. We were the better team a few weeks ago at Chelsea. We have the quality, there’s no question about that. We could do with a bit of luck against them but we don’t have a problem with them.”
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Ferguson has his own striker dilemmas. Does he play Wayne Rooney on his own (possibly with Ryan Giggs or Ji-Sung Park supporting)? Or alongside Javier Hernandez or Dimitar Berbatov? Hernandez is in favour. “He’s improved the team,” said Ferguson. Hernandez changes the dimensions of United’s game by forcing opposing defenders, wary of his pace and movement, back 15 yards, thereby creating extra space for Nani and Rooney. In that last head-to-head, before Chelsea’s midfield took hold, he helped United attack effectively. “We were dead after 45 minutes but came back,” Ancelotti admitted.
Ferguson’s priorities on Wednesday will be defensive, though. “It will be a close game, all we want to do is take them back to Old Trafford,” he said. “If we’ve got a strong side out defensively, it gives us a really good chance.” Ferguson, still banned domestically, will be back in the technical area but is playing that down. “I think your preparation is the most important thing and what you say at half-time,” he said.
Chelsea are seriously disadvantaged without Luiz, given the effect the Brazilian had in the March 1 game. Ancelotti feels these Euro meetings will differ from domestic head-to-heads. “Si, si,” he said, acknowledging his good record against United not only with Chelsea but AC Milan. “But that is the past. We have to play against a fantastic team with tradition and history. In the Champions League, this counts.
“It’s important to have tradition and history in the Champions League. The experience of the team, the personality of the players, the character, are very important for this kind of game where there is a lot of pressure. The reason Milan won a lot of Champions Leagues was the tradition of the club. For Man United it is the same. The power of this team is obviously that they have Rooney, a lot of fantastic players and a fantastic coach. But history and tradition of this club is also the power.”
History, in Europe, is what Abramovich craves. If Ancelotti can help, with Torres scoring, the owner would probably buy him any golf course he wants to celebrate on.
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