5 iconic moments from Carlo Ancelotti's career

Carlo Ancelotti may have just been sacked by Bayern Munich, but the Italian still has numerous iconic moments which will help him quickly forget about that.

The fact that he won the Bundesliga title with Bayern and that their exit from the Champions League came in controversial circumstances last season, makes one wonder whether his sacking was a rather premature decision. His sacking at Bayern will be considered a low in his career, illustrating just how many iconic moments the 58-year-old has had during his management career.

Here are the five most iconic moments from Ancelotti’s career:

5) Serie A Coach of the Year 2001

Ancelotti’s first personal accolade, one of many, came in 2001. This was when he first took over as boss of AC Milan at the very beginning of his career.

He had led Juventus to second in Serie A in the 2000/01 season, before taking over at Milan and helping them recover from a poor run of results, leading to him winning this trophy.

In recent weeks Ancelotti has suffered criticism from lots of Bayern players about his training and techniques as a coach. However, this seems odd due to the fact players like Kaka, Andrea Pirlo, Cristiano Ronaldo and more have never complained and achieved success with him as their boss.

Ancelotti is clearly a very good coach, proven by the fact he has managed so many big teams, including Juventus, Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern. Additionally, he has led all of them but one to league titles, indicating Arjen Robben and his Bayern team-mates may need to take a look in the mirror rather than make Ancelotti the scapegoat.

Things may not have worked out at Bayern, but Ancelotti winning coach of the year in 2001 was the starting point in a hugely successful managerial career and one of his most iconic moments as a coach.

4) 2009/10 Premier League title

Ancelotti led Chelsea to the Premier League title in his first season

Another club Ancelotti was arguably prematurely dismissed from was Chelsea, who have a ruthless policy when it comes to sacking managers.

However, one of the most iconic moments of his career was proving, after being so successful at Milan, that he could lead a Premier League team to the title. Winning the Premier League with the blues was unquestionably one of the best moments in his managerial career.

The Chelsea side of 2009/10 that lifted the title set a new record for goals, scoring 103, 17 more than Manchester United scored that season. This must have only emphasised how pleased Ancelotti was with his Chelsea players and how well they adapted to his system.

Although he was sacked a year later, he will recall his time at Chelsea and their winning the league as one of the special moments in his career because of how free-flowing and well-rounded his side was.

3) 2003 Champions League title

In 2003 the Italian won his first Champions League trophy

Forgotten by many because of it being a slightly boring Champions League final, Ancelotti’s winning his first Champions League trophy was most definitely one of the Italian’s most iconic moments in football.

Along the way to their Champions League win, they had to knock Bayern Munich out of one group, before facing and getting past Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid. They would then defeat both Ajax and rivals Inter Milan in the next two stages, setting up their final with Juventus.

Milan deserved to win the final, having defended strongly, having a perfectly good goal disallowed and hitting the post subsequently. As a result, the match would be decided by efforts from the penalty spot and on this occasion, unlike 2005, Andriy Shevchenko scored the decisive penalty.

Furthermore, beating Juventus in the final meant they were defeating a team who had beaten them to the Serie A title, showing how tough it would have been to win this game, and how iconic this moment was for Ancelotti.

2) 2007 Champions League title

Ancelotti avenged his 2005 defeat to Liverpool in his second successful Champions League campaign

Ancelotti once again showcased his credentials as a manager by leading Milan to their third Champions League final in six years at the club. And he won the trophy for the second time in 2007.

In 2005, his team could have won their second Champions League trophy in three seasons, but a disastrous second half where Liverpool scored three goals in six minutes to come back from 3-0 down led to their eventual defeat on penalties.

In 2007 though, they would avenge that defeat and quite comfortably defeat Liverpool. They took the lead just before half-time through Filippo Inzaghi and he scored Milan’s second in the 82nd minutes as Kaka split open the defence to set him through one on one. Dirk Kuyt would peg Milan back but they were able to see the game out.

Ancelotti will have been delighted with this victory after Rafa Benitez was able to put one over on him just a few years earlier.

1) 2014 Champions League title

The most iconic moment in Ancelotti's career, helping Madrid achieve La Decima

In the first Champions League final that would be battled out by two teams from the same city, neither team disappointed in putting on a show.

Ancelotti’s nerves were almost definitely jangling throughout this game, but they got there in the end, achieving La Decima-- his most iconic moment as a coach.

36 minutes in, Diego Godin gave Atletico the lead with a header, meaning they would now sit back for the rest of the match, something Atletico do, and did spectacularly again that night. They kept out Madrid for the whole match, defending for their lives, until the third minute of stoppage time when a magnificent header from Sergio Ramos rustled the bottom left corner of the net.

They would then go on to score three more in extra time through Bale, Marcelo and a Ronaldo penalty, to defeat their rivals and win their first Champions League trophy since 2002, because of Ancelotti.

Thus the Italian worked his magic in Europe once again winning the Champions League with Los Blancos, in what was his most iconic moment as a manager.