Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Ancelotti fails to make Champions League knockout phase for first time in 18 years

The Italian has not suffered such an ignominy in over a decade, since he was eliminated in the groups while manager of Juventus

Carlo Ancelotti has been knocked out of the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2000.
The Italian manager, who has managed the likes of AC Milan, Chelsea and PSG, took the reigns at Napoli in May.
He was unable to guide the club through the group stages, however, with the Serie A side finishing behind leaders PSG and second-placed Liverpool in Group C.
That failure marks the first time that Ancelotti has failed to progress into the knockout stages since his time at Juventus.
In 2000-01, the Bianconeri were unable to progress to the knockouts, as they finished bottom of a group containing Deportivo La Coruna, Panathinaikos and Hamburg.
That came two seasons after Juve reached the semi-finals, while Ancelotti was also eliminated in the group stages with Parma in 1997-98, the Italian club finishing second in Group A behind Borussia Dortmund, but ending up bottom of the ranking of second-placed sides.
Since then, Ancelotti took in six campaigns with Milan, winning the competition twice, reaching the final once more, and also reaching the semi-finals, the quarter-finals and the last 16.
At Chelsea, Ancelotti reached the last 16 and the quarter-finals, while as PSG manager he advanced to the last eight.
The Italian again won the Champions League at Real Madrid, in 2013-14, before reaching the last four the following season.
At Bayern Munich, he reached the last eight prior to his sacking the following season, which came after the second matchday. Bayern went on to reach the semi-finals without him.

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