Perhaps owing to his reputation today as one of the world's best managers, many people tend to forget that Carlo Ancelotti had been regarded as something of a loser in football management until seven years ago, when Milan defeated Juventus on penalties at Old Trafford in a dull 2003 Champions League final.
No moment in his early coaching career shaped this initial perception more than Juve's last-day collapse, which saw Lazio pip them to the 2000 Serie A title.
Having been Serie A runners-up with Parma in 1997, earned successive second-place finishes with Juve in 2000 and 2001 and been eliminated in the semi-final of the Champions League in 1999 by Manchester United - despite leading 3-1 on aggregate in the second leg in Turin - Ancelotti was tagged by the Calcio community as a “nearly-man”.
Much in the same way as another former Chelsea boss, Claudio Ranieri, is still viewed today.
These disappointments eventually led to Carletto’s departure from Juve at the end of 2000-01, with former general manager Luciano Moggi of the opinion that Ancelotti lacked the winning mentality to take his team over the final hurdles.
Moggi brought back 1990s winning machine Marcello Lippi, who immediately reclaimed the Scudetto in his first season after returning and then defended it the following campaign.
While Ranieri has never displayed much bitterness despite all his near misses, you can sense that despite winning two Champions Leagues and a Scudetto post-2003, Ancelotti’s earlier failures still irritate him.
"Do I have to go over it again?" he complained at a reporter in Friday's press conference who asked about the climax of the race in 2000.
The biggest scar was left almost exactly 10 years ago, during one of the most infamous matches in Italian football history.
The venue was the Stadio Renato Curi as Juventus travelled to mid-table Perugia on the final day needing just a victory to see off Lazio in the championship race.
All three points seemed a formality as the modest, unspectacular Umbria outfit, who possessed few star players and a young Marco Materazzi, were already safe from relegation. And in Italy teams with nothing to play for traditionally put up no fight against title challengers or relegation battlers in the closing rounds.
But a huge cloud then emerged, quite literally. Juventus had controlled the first half, with Pippo Inzaghi and Zinedine Zidane (twice) being inches away from putting the Bianconeri ahead.
Before half-time, a beautiful blue sky suddenly turned into a monsoon-like downpour, allied with hailstones and thunder and lightning. The pitch soon became as waterlogged as a World War One trench.
It appeared inevitable that the game would be suspended when referee Pierluigi Collina came out during the break and attempted to bounce the ball, only to see it stop dead in the puddles of water.
Both sets of players waited in the changing rooms for 82 minutes before, incredibly, they were eventually called back out to play the second-half.
The conditions were truly horrific with the ball regularly holding up in the aqua-pools. The match became something of a lottery, and astonishingly Perugia took the lead thanks to a superb volley from Alessandro Calori on 50 minutes.
Juventus laid siege as they looked to salvage the Scudetto, but a string of missed chances (including an Inzaghi sitter), as well as a quite impossible playing field, saw Perugia hold on.
With Lazio beating Reggina 3-0 (and watching almost the whole of Juventus’ second-half on the Stadio Olimpico pitch) Sven Goran Eriksson’s men were crowned champions.
This had been an unlikely triumph for the Swede, whose side had trailed Juventus by five points with three games remaining and nine points several weeks earlier.
Juventus were furious, and protested that the game should never have resumed in such conditions and after such a long delay.
Collina has been detested by the club’s fans ever since. But that was and is no consolation for Ancelotti, who still has a notable sense of exasperation whenever the subject rears its head.
A decade on from sinking in the Perugia whirlpool, he will be determined not to drown again when Chelsea host Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
No moment in his early coaching career shaped this initial perception more than Juve's last-day collapse, which saw Lazio pip them to the 2000 Serie A title.
Having been Serie A runners-up with Parma in 1997, earned successive second-place finishes with Juve in 2000 and 2001 and been eliminated in the semi-final of the Champions League in 1999 by Manchester United - despite leading 3-1 on aggregate in the second leg in Turin - Ancelotti was tagged by the Calcio community as a “nearly-man”.
Much in the same way as another former Chelsea boss, Claudio Ranieri, is still viewed today.
These disappointments eventually led to Carletto’s departure from Juve at the end of 2000-01, with former general manager Luciano Moggi of the opinion that Ancelotti lacked the winning mentality to take his team over the final hurdles.
Moggi brought back 1990s winning machine Marcello Lippi, who immediately reclaimed the Scudetto in his first season after returning and then defended it the following campaign.
While Ranieri has never displayed much bitterness despite all his near misses, you can sense that despite winning two Champions Leagues and a Scudetto post-2003, Ancelotti’s earlier failures still irritate him.
"Do I have to go over it again?" he complained at a reporter in Friday's press conference who asked about the climax of the race in 2000.
The biggest scar was left almost exactly 10 years ago, during one of the most infamous matches in Italian football history.
The venue was the Stadio Renato Curi as Juventus travelled to mid-table Perugia on the final day needing just a victory to see off Lazio in the championship race.
All three points seemed a formality as the modest, unspectacular Umbria outfit, who possessed few star players and a young Marco Materazzi, were already safe from relegation. And in Italy teams with nothing to play for traditionally put up no fight against title challengers or relegation battlers in the closing rounds.
But a huge cloud then emerged, quite literally. Juventus had controlled the first half, with Pippo Inzaghi and Zinedine Zidane (twice) being inches away from putting the Bianconeri ahead.
Before half-time, a beautiful blue sky suddenly turned into a monsoon-like downpour, allied with hailstones and thunder and lightning. The pitch soon became as waterlogged as a World War One trench.
It appeared inevitable that the game would be suspended when referee Pierluigi Collina came out during the break and attempted to bounce the ball, only to see it stop dead in the puddles of water.
Both sets of players waited in the changing rooms for 82 minutes before, incredibly, they were eventually called back out to play the second-half.
The conditions were truly horrific with the ball regularly holding up in the aqua-pools. The match became something of a lottery, and astonishingly Perugia took the lead thanks to a superb volley from Alessandro Calori on 50 minutes.
Juventus laid siege as they looked to salvage the Scudetto, but a string of missed chances (including an Inzaghi sitter), as well as a quite impossible playing field, saw Perugia hold on.
With Lazio beating Reggina 3-0 (and watching almost the whole of Juventus’ second-half on the Stadio Olimpico pitch) Sven Goran Eriksson’s men were crowned champions.
This had been an unlikely triumph for the Swede, whose side had trailed Juventus by five points with three games remaining and nine points several weeks earlier.
Juventus were furious, and protested that the game should never have resumed in such conditions and after such a long delay.
Collina has been detested by the club’s fans ever since. But that was and is no consolation for Ancelotti, who still has a notable sense of exasperation whenever the subject rears its head.
A decade on from sinking in the Perugia whirlpool, he will be determined not to drown again when Chelsea host Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
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