The two sides entering the Metropolitano Stadium on June 1 can legitimately be pinned up against some of the great European sides witnessed during the competition’s rich history.
Ahead of this blockbuster encounter between Tottenham and Liverpoo
Trimming the list down to five is an enormously tricky task and any one of the five picked hold claim to top spot.
But here is our look at the five best European Cup/Champions League managers.
1. BRIAN CLOUGH
If Ol’ Big Head had been coaching in this era, a day wouldn’t go by without one of his witticisms setting social media aflame.
Acerbic, outspoken, unconventional and a plain genius, the man who named himself as ‘in the top one’ of the best managers sits atop our list of European greats as well.
In 1977, Nottingham Forest were promoted to the first division of English football. In 1978 they won the league. In 1979 they ruled Europe.
Clough assembled a team of all-sorts including youth products, other teams’ scraps and Britain’s first million pound footballer in Trevor Francis, and led them to back-to-back European successes.
In that 1979 campaign they were drawn with all-conquering European champions Liverpool in the first round, but Forest dispatched the Reds 2-0 on aggregate before overcoming Swedish side Malmo in the final.
In 1980, Forest defended their title – becoming the first side to have won more European trophies than domestic leagues – by beating a Hamburg side containing Ballon d’Or winner Kevin Keegan.
Though no tactical mastermind – he liked to play the ball on the deck and counter, but it was certainly not ‘Juego de Posicion’ – Clough’s ability to motivate and mould championship-winning sides from humble beginnings is unmatched.
As for self-confidence? He makes Jose Mourinho look like a wallflower.
2. ARRIGO SACCHI
The thought of playing attacking football was anathema to Italian football before Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan revolution.
Sacchi, a former shoe salesman tasked with resuscitating a fallen giant, managed to convince a veteran team full of Catenaccio-sworn legends to embrace a new philosophy – admittedly with some help from owner Silvio Berlusconi’s deep pockets.
Embroidered by the talents of Dutch trio Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, Sacchi’s formulated tactically astute sides who were just as comfortable changing shape without the ball as they were with it.
Famously his ‘shadow play’ training sessions – where his players would practise their positioning with an imaginary ball – bamboozled the Real Madrid scout in attendance before Milan took them to task in a staggering 5-0 victory.
That was in 1989, a match that produced perhaps the best headed goal of all-time from Van Basten. Steaua Bucharest were promptly swept aside in the final by one of the finest teams Europe has ever seen.
The Rossoneri cemented their legacy a year later. Alessandro Costacurta, Van Basten, Rijkaard was the combination for the mesmerizing goal that saw them defend the European Cup against Benfica. It took another 27 years before a team defended the trophy once more.
3. BOB PAISLEY
Most Liverpool supporters will claim that Bill Shankly, not Paisley, is the greatest manager the club has ever seen. As far as European competition is concerned, the answer is cut and dry.
It could be said that Shankly laid the foundations while Paisley paved the club with gold. Having played second fiddle to Shankly for 15 years, Paisley did what his predecessor could never quite do – rule Europe.
Paisley – a Liverpool player turned self-taught physiotherapist turned manager extraordinaire – brought the type of legends to Anfield now spoken about in hushed tones, such as Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen, and Graeme Souness.
They were at the fulcrum of Liverpool’s first European Cup success in 1977 after a 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach. Despite the departure of Kevin Keegan to Hamburg, the Ballon d’Or winner’s heir, King Kenny, scored the winner against Brugge the following year.
Paisley’s ostensibly curmudgeonly nature was said to have sometimes rubbed players up the wrong way, but it worked. After a two-year ‘drought’, Liverpool won the European crown back from Forest after beating Real Madrid in the 1981 final.
Until Zinedine Zidane’s hattrick, no manager had won three European Cups with the same club except for Paisley. Not bad for an assistant.
4. CARLO ANCELOTTI
Ancelotti’s floor is as lofty as his left eyebrow. The Italian is seen as a safe pair of hands, evidenced by the fact that he has worked for some of the biggest clubs in the world outside of his homeland: Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
To say he is a jack of all trades, however, is to merely damn him with faint praise. His extraordinary success in Europe, on three occasions and with two teams, speaks for how much of a tactical chameleon he truly is.
Upon arrival in Milan, Ancelotti took one look at attacking midfielder Andreas Pirlo and cultivated arguably the world’s best deep-lying playmaker.
With heel-snappers Gennaro Gattuso and Clarance Seedorf in support, as well as a fearsome back-line, the Rossoneri suffocated the opposition, resulting in Ancelotti’s first European Cup triumph over Juventus – on penalties – in 2003.
After the agony of Istanbul in 2005, Ancelotti returned with Kaka – the world’s best attacker at the time – for a successful tilt two years later. A 4-3-2-1 ‘Christmas tree’ formation gave the forward line more oomph after Andriy Shevchenko departed the club. A Ronaldo-led Manchester United were semi-final victims, before Filippo Inzaghi’s double exacted revenge on Liverpool in the final.
His third success came at Real Madrid, and as at Milan, he relished working with existing tools at the Bernabeu. Free-roaming on the left of a 4-3-3, it can be argued that Ronaldo’s best years came under Ancelotti.
That combination helped clinch Real’s fabled La Decima in 2014, downing city rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra-time. A safe pair of hands controlled by a formidable mind.
5. ZINEDINE ZIDANE
No matter how many European titles – if any – Zidane wins during his second stint in the Spanish capital, it feels as if his tactical acumen will forever be scrutinised.
It would be kind to call him an innovator, and he received the job despite minimal experience with Madrid’s B side. His critics are confounded by one telling stat, however – his unbelievable Champions League record.
He has not only won the trophy three times, but three times in a row. No single manager has ever done that, and it is a record unheard of since the great Los Blancos sides of the 1950s. Zidane has never lost a Champions League tie or final.
How did it happen? The stars have certainly aligned for him in some ways, having the benefit of a stable and relatively injury-free side over the course of his three glittering years.
But as the Galacticos era in the early 2000s proved, a surfeit of talent does not necessarily translate into a surfeit of success, and the respects he commands – having been the best midfielder of his generation certainly helped – has put a lid on dressing room egos.
Nor has he been cowed by the higher-ups. The likes of James Rodriguez were jettisoned in favour of the rough-and-tumble Casemiro, giving Madrid a crucial defensive shield and oft-overlooked balance.
Atletico, then Juventus, then Liverpool fell to this juggernaut of stars. If Zidane revs them up again for a fourth trophy, this list is his to conquer.
