ANCELOTTI UP AGAINST HIS OLD CLUB
Napoli coach set for emotional home debut against AC Milan
CARLO Ancelotti faces an emotional home debut as Napoli coach against old club AC Milan today as Cristiano Ronaldo plays his first match in Turin in the second round of Serie A action.
Ancelotti spent most of his career at AC Milan with the 59-yearold winning three Serie A and four European titles as a player and coach with the northern giants.
His last coaching job in Italy — before nine trophy-laden years abroad at clubs including Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich — was at the helm of Milan.
It will be a meeting of old friends against Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso and Paolo Maldini, with whom he won the club’s last Champions League in 2007.
“It’s great to meet up with good friends who traverse time with you,” said Ancelotti on Twitter, after admitting homesickness had lured him back to Italy.
Serie A runners-up Napoli came closest to winning their first title since 1990 last season.
The last time Ancelotti faced Milan as a rival on the bench was 17 years ago when he was coach of Juventus.
Since he departed the San Siro in 2009 Milan have won just one Serie A title in 2011 under now Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri.
It will also be a homecoming for goalkeeper Pepe Reina who left Napoli this summer for Milan along with on-loan striker Gonzalo Higuain who played three seasons at the San Paolo — scoring 91 goals in 146 games — before moving to Juventus last year.
Ronaldo returns to the scene of what he has termed his “best goal” — a superb overhead kick for Real Madrid which earned him a standing ovation from the Turin crowd in the Champions League last April.
The 33-year-old made his competitive debut for Juventus in the Serie A opener against Chievo which his side won 3-2.
In Turin, he will be bidding to score his first goal for the seventime defending champions against Lazio — fifth last season and looking for their first win after losing last weekend’s opener against Napoli.
Inter Milan look to get their season off the mark after last week’s shock defeat to Sassuolo when they host Torino on Sunday, with AS Roma facing Atalanta on Monday. FIXTURES
TODAY — Juventus v Lazio, Napoli v AC Milan. TOMORROW — SPAL v Parma, Cagliari v Sassuolo, Fiorentina v Chievo, Frosinone v Bologna, Genoa v Empoli, Inter Milan v Torino, Udinese v Sampdoria. MONDAY — AS Roma v Atalanta.