Mircea is coming back into the UEFA Champions League as Dynamo Kyiv coach at the age of seventy-five. His first main task will be defeating Juventus, who are currently working under Coach Andrea Pirlo. Andrea made his playing debut under Lucescu twenty five years ago at sixteen years old.
Mircea is no stranger to Champions League fans at Betway, as he has been part of the competition before. The 75-year-old has worked with Inter Milan, Besiktas, Galatasary, and Shakhtar Donetsk before joining Dynamo Kyiv. As such, Mircea will join the list of German managers to make UCL history as one of the oldest coaches in the competition.
On the other side, Andrea Pirlo has been incredibly mature since his teenage life, and he has continued getting better with his experience. The Brescia coach promoted the player to the senior squad at only 15 years, where he developed much faster than expected.
According to Pirlo, Lucescu gave him tactical lessons and explained what one would do when playing with the professionals. It wasn’t easy training with professionals, and the experienced players were jealous of the teenager whose talent was better than all of them combined.
In his biography, the player maker recalls dealing with vicious tackles from his teammates daily, but the coach was always on his side.
Lucescu always referred to Pirlo as a person who knows what to do with the ball once he has it. That makes him the kind of coach that punters at Betway like to see managing a team like Juventus.
While Brescia tried to get the go-ahead to use Pirlo in Serie A fixtures, the request was denied. As a result, the youngster had to wait until he attained 16 to make his debut in May 1995. Unfortunately, the team was at the bottom of the league and was facing the danger of relegation.
Lunescu had left the team in February when there was no more hope for their rise. That didn’t help Brescia’s fortune, and they lost every single game without Lunescu until the season ended.
While in charge, Lucescu could use Pirlo in friendly matches, and surprisingly that led to both moving to Inter Milan.
Lucescu recalled the match Brescia organized against inter reserves. The game ended in a stalemate, but Pirlo stood out. Massimo Moratti became interested in him and decided to sign him. That was the time Lucescu met the inter president in person.
Before Pirlo shifted to the Inter side, it took time, arriving at San Siro during the summer in 1998. However, Pirlo assisted Brescia to bounce back to Serie A before leaving, with an impressive performance throughout the season.
Lunescu on the other hand, had short spells and Rapid Bucharest and Reggiana, the arch rivals of Dynamo Bucharest. Over 25 years later, Pirlo’s first European fixture as the coach will be against the 75-year-old Lunescu, who joined Dynamo Kyiv during the summer.
Pirlo to head Juventus as Lucescu manages Kyiv
While these options seemed surreal several months ago, their clash marks the beginning of a fascinating new Champions League season. Even better, Lunescu and Pirlo’s past relationship makes it a worthy opener.
