IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS - UEFA
Picture : Pep Guardiola becomes 5th coach in Champions League history with 4+ appearances in the final of competition. Alex Ferguson, Jürgen Klopp and Marcelo Lippi also have 4 finals while Carlo Ancelotti holds the record with 5.
Statistics on Champions’ League semi-final of 17 May (Man City vs Real Madrid 4-0)
*Real Madrid failed to win in all their 5 away games vs Manchester City in the Champions League (2 draws, 3 losses).
The only team they have faced more times away in the European Cup/UCL without ever winning is Milan (2 draws 5 losses in 7 games).
*Carlo Ancelotti has held his 191st game in Champions League as a coach surpassing the Alex Ferguson’s record (190 games) of the competition (since 1992).
*It was certainly not the best way to celebrate a record. Only once in his Champions League career, Ancelotti suffered such a painful defeat (0-4 as a coach of Milan vs Deportivo on 7 April 2004.
*Real Madrid also got their joint-heaviest defeat in the competition (along with 0-4 vs Liverpool in March 2009).
Considering also the European Cup era (1955-1992), “Los Blancos” were also severely beaten by Benfica in 1965 (1-5), Hamburg in 1980 (1-5) and Milan in 1989 (0-5, what is their largest defeat in Europe ever).
*Pep Guardiola won his 100th game in UCL; he became the 3rd coach with 100+ wins in the competition history, after Carlo Ancelotti (107) and Alex Ferguson (102).
Guardiola needed fewer matches to achieve the mark of 100 victories (160) than both Ancelotti (180) and Ferguson (184).
*Guardiola became the first ever coach to eliminate Real Madrid 3 times in Champions League. Ottmar Hitzfeld and Marcelo Lippi have done it twice each.
*Bernardo Silva is the 3rd player to score 2+ goals in a UCL semi-final game vs Real Madrid, after Lionel Messi (2 goals in 2011) and Robert Lewandowski (4 goals in 2013).
Another 5 players have done it in the European Cup era: Giorgio dal Monte (Milan) in 1956, Gerd Müller (Bayern) in 1976, Manfred Kaltz and Horst Hrubesch (both Hamburg) in 1980, Lothar Matthäus (Bayern) in 1987.
*Manchester City prolonged their unbeaten series in all competitions to 23 games; it started after 0-1 away loss to Tottenham in February and includes now 19 wins and 4 draws.
*Champions League final 2023 in Istanbul will be the first ever competitive match between Manchester City and Inter.
Last time a debut meeting between two team came just in a Champions League final was in 2005 (Liverpool vs Milan), also in Istanbul!