Graham Potter, the manager who admitted a month ago he thought he had never attended a UEFA Champions League game, will be on the touchline at one of the major European Cup stadiums on Tuesday. ‘Europe. His road to the San Siro, where Potter’s Chelsea are aiming to get closer to the knockout stage at the expense of AC Milan, was traveled at a brisk pace.
Even faster was the sudden rediscovery of Xabi Alonso with a tournament he won twice as a player, but which it was hardly suspected a fortnight ago would offer him a tempting opportunity at the status of instant hero as a novice trainer.
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Alonso will guide Bayer Leverkusen, who appointed him as head coach last week, into a high-stakes collision with Porto tomorrow. The two clubs are level on three points with Atletico Madrid: Alonso was pushed into a real fight for second place behind Group B leaders FC Brugge.
Five managers who started the season relishing the Champions League challenge have been sacked since matchday one, and four were at clubs – Chelsea, Sevilla, RC Leipzig and Leverkusen – who would instinctively be aiming for a place in the last 16, at least.
Getting there brings in significant revenue, and if the goal strays, executives calculate the cost of reimbursing a sacked manager – even one as well paid as Thomas Tuchel, Potter’s predecessor – against the likelihood of a so-called “New Manager’s Rebound” – a rapid improvement in form that could put the team back on track for qualification.
Potter, who took over from Tuchel a month ago, appears to have provided some rebound, evidently from Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Milan seven nights ago in London correcting a poor start to the European campaign.
Hours after Tuchel oversaw a shock 1-0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb, he was dismissed. Potter’s first-ever outing as Champions League manager was a 1-1 draw with Salzburg, who lead a group in which Chelsea are now settled in second place.
Beat Milan again and Chelsea would give themselves a three-point cushion over the Italian champions. And from there? In the Champions League, momentum counts, and it is a competition that can be generous for the coaches who joined during the season, in a hurry.
Chelsea 3 AC Milan 0 – player ratings
Just ask Hansi Flick, who was promoted to assistant coach at Bayern Munich in November 2019. He, like Potter a month ago, had never taken charge of a Champions League game alone before guiding Bayern to eight triumphs successive matches, including the final against Paris Saint-Germain.
The following season, Tuchel was fired by PSG in December, hired to replace Frank Lampard at Chelsea in January, and in May celebrated a European Cup victory in the final against Manchester City.
Potter will also note that Chelsea’s two European Cups have been won with a new, fresh-to-work man on the touchline. Roberto di Matteo had been in charge for just two and a half months at Stamford Bridge when he won the 2012 European Cup.
A ‘New Manager Bounce’ has been mooted at Leipzig, who bid farewell to Domenico Tedesco after the opening loss to Shakhtar Donetsk. His successor, Marco Rose, oversaw two landslide Bundesliga wins and picked up the first points of the European campaign at home to Celtic. A replica of that win in Glasgow tonight could put 2019-20 semi-finalists Leipzig back in the wake of Group F leaders Real Madrid.
There may be less optimism for Jorge Sampaoli, who started his second spell at Sevilla last week, replacing Julen Lopetegui immediately after a 4-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund. Sampaoli takes over a side with one European point so far and occupying the relegation zone in La Liga.
“We have to use every game as a chance to improve,” he said ahead of tonight’s second leg against Dortmund in Germany. It was an acknowledgment that the prospect of emerging from a group led by Manchester City, and with Dortmund six points behind, is slim.
About sixty kilometers away, in Leverkusen, the mood of the new boss of the Champions League is more positive. Xabi Alonso’s debut in his first senior head coaching job, after replacing Gerardo Seoane last Thursday, was a dazzling one, a 4-0 victory over Schalke 04. Take that energy to the Champions League, as has said Alonso, “and we can build our chances of reaching the last 16”.
If Leverkusen can’t take second place, Alonso will hardly be blamed: “What happened in the first three games matters,” he stressed of the two defeats under Seoane. But if Alonso saves this bad start, he will have a huge credit at the Bayer bank.
Updated: October 11, 2022, 02:41