Dubai: Successful former player/coach partnership Filippo Inzaghi and Carlo Ancelotti will face each other as managers for the first time when AC Milan and Real Madrid meet in the Dubai Football Challenge at The Sevens stadium here on Tuesday (8pm kick-off).
Ancelotti managed Inzaghi at AC Milan for eight years between 2001 and 2009, winning eight trophies including two Uefa Champions Leagues and one Serie A title together, before the former went on to manage Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
AC Milan have struggled to reproduce the success they had under Ancelotti and have gone through four managers since he left — and now the task has fallen to his former protege Inzaghi to arrest the club’s decline.
Both managers have said it will be an emotional reunion on the sidelines of the star-studded friendly in Dubai, where both clubs have pledged to field their strongest team.
“It’s going to be a very special game for me because I have a long history with AC Milan,” said Ancelotti at Monday’s pre-match conference at Emirates Headquarters in Al Garhoud. “I have a very good relationship with the current Milan manager [Inzaghi], who used to play for me, so it will be a very special day.
“It will be an honour for us to play Milan, but for me also, as a former manager of the club, I have some good memories about this club and I’m really happy that this match can happen this week — above all because one of my ex players who helped me win a lot of trophies is now the manager, so I’m really excited for the game.”
Inzaghi reiterated Ancelotti’s sentiments in his side’s pre-match conference on Sunday.
“Ancelotti is a great coach and a very good person,” Inzaghi said. “We were together almost 10 years at Milan. I know how good a coach he is, he knows how to manage a club and he loves his players. It won’t be easy to play in front of him.
“I’m very happy to play with him in this match, he’s a guide for all coaches in Europe.”
Record 10-time European champions Real Madrid will be using this game, which is organised by the clubs’ mutual shirt sponsor Emirates airline, to continue momentum as they are on a winning run of 22 matches, two short of the world record set by Brazil’s Coritiba in 2011.
Meanwhile, seven-time European Cup/Uefa Champions League winners AC Milan are hoping to use the winter break friendly to help recover their form as they bid to get back into Europe next season, after missing out on continental involvement for the first time in 15 years when they finished eighth in Serie A last season.
