Diego Simeone and Zinedine Zidane will battle it out this Saturday for Champions League glory and for a place in the history books. Only two coaches from the Americas have ever lifted the Champions League and it’s been 51 years since the last. They were actually both Argentinian, Luis Carniglia with Real Madrid and Helenio Herrera with Inter, and they were both to win the tournament twice. On the other hand, a French coach has never won the Champions League but Zidane does have experience in winning it as a player, scoring the winning goal for Madrid’s ninth title.
Simeone y Zidane disputan un balón en el partido disputado en Delle Alpi en la 99-00.
Zidane looks to make historyIt seems strange that no French coach has every lifted the trophy but fate seems to be with Zidane as he quests to make history for his country. Albert Batteux got to two finals with Stade de Reims but they lost both times to Madrid and Didier Deschamps suffered a similar fate in 2004 at the hands of Jose Mourinho’s Porto.The most recent case was Arsene Wenger with Arsenal, who lost the 2006 final 2-1 against Barcelona. “It can’t be said that Atletico only defend, and the final will be very even, complicated match,” the Real Madrid coach said.Simeone’s momentDiego Simeone, who will be taking part in his second final, will be representing the Americas. ‘El Cholo’ is just one match away from being the first Argentinian to win the competition in its new format and he’ll want to put the memories of 2014’s final behind him. “The situation now and the final in Lisbon are different,” said the Atletico boss.”In that final we got there on the back of winning the league and this one is after having finished third. “We have to be realistic with our expectations and recognise that we face a great team, which is one of the best in the world. “We’ll try to take control of the match and play it in our way.”Valencia’s two finalsBefore Simeone, Argentinian Hector Cuper came close to winning two finals as the coach of Valencia.
He led his team to the final of the Champions League in 2000 and 2001 but they couldn’t achieve success. Madrid defeated his Valencia side in the first final before an agonising penalty defeat to Bayern Munich, with Mauricio Pellegrino missing the decisive penalty. This Saturday’s final marks a fantastic chance for Simeone to break the curse on South American coaches, and be the first to lift the trophy since Helenio Herrera in 1965.
