The Milan and Lazio coaches faced each other for the first time on the bench over 20 years ago and represent two opposing football philosophies. Over the years, they have often taken jabs at each other publicly: “We are opposites in terms of character.”

Don’t pay too much attention to the photo above. It’s more about pleasantries. A formality for the cameras, just as it will be on Saturday evening at the Meazza. A photo opportunity, as they say in these cases. In reality, Massimiliano Allegri and Maurizio Sarri would be unlikely to consciously choose to go out to dinner together. There is nothing exaggerated between them, for heaven’s sake, they don’t hate each other in the strict sense of the word. And they often compliment each other. However, let’s say that in the past, they have not spared each other a few more or less painful jibes.

Face to face—  Their acquaintance and frequent encounters on the pitch, however, date back a long way. For their first encounters on the respective benches, we have to go back to the early 2000s in Tuscany, when Allegri coached Aglianese and Sarri coached Sangiovannese. Lega Pro championship. Max was at the dawn of his career, Maurizio already had several years of experience, having started in the Second Division. Twenty years later, the tally stands at 19 face-to-face encounters, with the balance tipping decisively in Allegri’s favor: 11 wins, 4 draws, and 4 defeats for the Rossoneri coach. These encounters involved eight teams: in addition to Aglianese and Sangiovannese, there were also Sassuolo, Verona, Juve, Empoli, Napoli, and Lazio. Along the way, they have pursued different philosophies and styles of play, which have then been taken to extremes and freeze-dried into ‘giochismo’ (Sarri) and ‘risultatismo’ (Allegri). Max is the coach who keeps the shutters down and has no problem stringing together narrow victories; Maurizio is the coach who is convinced that victories come—or at least should come—through play.

Back and forth—  The different visions of football have certainly contributed to igniting the fuse between the two, but that’s not all. Rewinding the tape, we find sparks as early as 2017. For example, during a Napoli-Juve match in December, when Sarri brought up Inter’s rest days between matches, Allegri replied: “I don’t follow him anymore, he’s always coming up with something. I think he does it to confuse me, so I’m going to stop.” He then emphasized the point: “Maurizio… I’m not following him anymore: one time he has the field, one time he has a week less…“ Let’s just say that it revolved around a very Tuscan irony. Another round in February 2018. Sarri said: ”There are teams that mark a period. I am convinced that in twenty years we will be talking about Napoli, hoping to win something.” Allegri, without responding specifically to Maurizio, reflected a few days later: “I always say and continue to say that in the end, what matters is whether you can write something you’ve won in the record books, because otherwise we already forget what happened two days ago, let alone if we’ll remember 20 years ago, in that game, what would have happened if the ball had hit the post and gone in… In life, you have to be very practical.“ Two months later, in the run-up to Juve-Napoli, the atmosphere had heated up again after Sarri had strategically shifted the pressure onto the Bianconeri. And so, Max said: ”Let me get this straight. Does no one here ever take responsibility? That guy has no pressure, the other guy has no pressure, so it’s only right that Juventus wins. Because Napoli has no pressure in the Coppa Italia, no pressure in the Champions League, no pressure in the Europa League, they have no pressure anywhere.” And, even without a direct exchange, their personal views on soccer have always placed the two on different planets. Allegri: “It’s not that I have to be an aesthete to make people happy, I have to make them happy by winning. If at some point you have to play badly to get the result, you do it.” Sarri, on the other side of the moon: “For me, the result is achieved through the game, I can’t think any other way. Our goal has always been beauty.”
chatter—  Tracks that will never meet. The acrimony reached its peak around the word Juve, when in 2019 Allegri was sacked and the Old Lady decided to put her faith in Sarri, who, during his presentation, spoke of a more proactive game and entertaining the people. Sarri never mentioned Allegri, just as Allegri never mentioned Sarri, but he quickly added: “In the end, winning is what counts, the rest is just talk. Players are like horses, you have to watch how they move their legs. Tactics and formations are all nonsense.” Maurizio’s counter-reply: “Do I believe in these concepts too? I just hope the presidents don’t notice, otherwise our salaries will decrease significantly… I think there’s a middle ground, they’re just different opinions and ways of understanding the same job.“ We can close the list by quoting Allegri again, from November 2022 before a Juve-Lazio match: ”We have opposite personalities.” An obvious statement, but… it’s always better to reiterate it. For the record: before this Milan-Lazio match, at a press conference two days before the game, Max said of Maurizio: “He’s doing a great job, Lazio is a well-trained team.” A peace pipe?