UCL final: Both Klopp and Ancelotti looking to make history

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his Real Madrid rival Carlo Ancelotti are looking to win the Champions League this season. Both can make history if they do so on May 28 in Paris. 

Both Liverpool and Real Madrid will do whatever it takes to win the Champions League final on May 28 in Paris — and either team’s manager can make history in the process.

Liverpool is looking to add the Premier League, FA Cup and the UCL to their trophy case over the coming weeks after having already captured the Carabao Cup. It would make them the first English club to win the quadruple since Celtic did so in 1967 after taking the European Champions’ Cup in addition to the Scottish domestic treble.

“It feels like the first in 20 [years],” Klopp, who coached Borussia Dortmund to the UCL final in 2013 and Liverpool in 2018 and 2019, told BT Sport on Tuesday. “It’s outstanding, because we obviously made it a little tricky for ourselves, but we knew these kind of things could happen.”

All three competitions are difficult, but the Champions League final represents the toughest, and most important, contest of the 2021-22 season.

Klopp likes to use a 4-3-3 formation and features a fearsome trio in attack spearheaded by Mohamed Salah on the left and Sadio Mane on the right.

While Klopp, 54, is looking to make history, Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti has records of his own to chase.

After already becoming the first manager in history to win all of Europe’s “Big Five” leagues — England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany — the former AC Milan and Italy midfielder could now become the only coach to win the European title on four different occasions.

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The 62-year-old Ancelotti, it should be noted, will be contesting his fifth European final and has already cemented his legacy at Real after he helped the Spanish giants win La Decima, what fans refer to as their 10th European Cup success in 2014.

He previously led his former club to the Champions League title in 2003, before infamously being at the helm in 2005 after AC Milan squandered a 3-0 halftime lead against Liverpool to lose in a penalty-kick shootout.

Two years later, Ancelotti and the Rossoneri exacted revenge, defeating Liverpool in the final to be crowned European champions.

Ancelotti also likes to utilize the 4-3-3 and has gotten much out of striker Karim Benzema this season. The French international has scored 43 goals in as many games so far this season across all competitions.

“The feeling I have is that I am very happy to reach the final. Again against Liverpool, which is three finals as manager against them. I have lived in Liverpool for two years and it is a derby for me,” Ancelotti, who once coached Liverpool rivals Everton, told the Spanish sports daily Marca. “I know Jurgen [Klopp] well. I have the utmost respect for him and his coaching staff. It’s going to be a fantastic final. A very even final.”