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Carlo Ancelotti's days are numbered at Real Madrid after Champions League semifinal failure

As the two coaches exchanged handshakes and a quick hug at the full-time whistle, it proved a perfect microcosm of modern-day soccer management. On one side was the unlikely flavour of the month – Juventus boss Max Allegri. On the other, a tired and resigned dethroned champion in Carlo Ancelotti.

How quickly the storylines change, the crimes proven, judgments handed down. How quickly the guilty parties pay the price.

On Wednesday night it was Ancelotti, a freakishly successful manager, who was in the dock. It was, they said, a season-defining moment, a stern cross-examination, for the Italian was struggling to stay relevant at Real Madrid. Many would argue it had been like that since his arrival.

He had found it tough at the club since taking over in 2013. In his debut campaign, they finished third in the Spanish league. It was portrayed as a disaster, despite the team missing out on the title by just three points and the race for the championship having gone right to the wire. Still, in the wider context of the perilous nature of the Madrid job, many believed that if they lost last year's Champions League final to local rivals Atletico, Ancelotti would have suffered through a humiliating firing. Instead, he promptly won the tournament for a third time – a record he shares with only one other person – former Liverpool coach Bob Paisley. But instead of it being trumpeted as the astounding achievement it was – Madrid's desperately longed-for “La Decima” (10th European Cup title), the accepted response from many was that Ancelotti had merely bided himself some time. The celebration was not of success but survival. The itchy trigger-fingers in Madrid's boardroom would have to wait for a clean shot.

This appears to be it. With no European success to save him, Ancelotti has already faced up to the realization of a trophy-less season. In Madrid, such a concept is alien. Last year, they watched the other, smaller, traditionally troubled team from the city walk away with the Spanish championship – an odd and unsettling development. This season, their most bitter opponents, Barcelona, have thrilled with their young coach, vibrant attack, almost certain league success and superb run to the Champions League decider. Throughout Ancelotti's time in charge, Madrid and their fans have been looking enviously in other directions. And with the expensively-assembled collection of marquee names in Madrid's dressing room, that's nowhere near good enough.

Of course, it seemed good enough earlier this season. After a shaky start, Madrid went on a 22-game winning streak and won the FIFA Club World Cup last December. The lavish summer signings, vanity projects of the club president Florentino Perez, unbalanced the team but Ancelotti found a way to appease everyone. Then in March, it all seemed to change. In the Champions League, they bizarrely conceded four goals to Schalke in their own stadium. Then they lost two successive La Liga away games – the second to Barcelona at the Camp Nou. It was a tight affair – a 2-1 loss, not that the result mattered. Afterwards, the Real fans turned on Gareth Bale and attacked his car. Literally, the wheels had started to come off.

Juventus players celebrate after Alvaro Morata, right, scored 1-1 during the Champions League second leg semifinal soccer match between Real Madrid and Juventus, at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Wednesday, May 13, 2015. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, Juventus won on aggregate and will play Barcelona in the Champions League final on June 6, 2015 in Berlin. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Since then, just one more loss – to Juventus in the first-leg of the Champions League semi-final. But the damage was done. The wobble was enough to derail everything, including Ancelotti. Still, he's been here before. He knows plenty about being at the mercy of megalomaniacs. At Chelsea, he won the Premier League and the FA Cup in his first season. That was too much, too soon. When he was top-flight runner-up a year later, Roman Abramovich sacked him. By December, he was at Paris St-Germain, the French club owned by Qatari billionaires. In 2013, he arguably walked into the most dysfunctional soccer organization on the planet and has survived for this long. And, of course, his most fruitful job was working for eight seasons at AC Milan, under the guidance and influence of owner and disgraced ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Maybe he's drawn to the insanity. If that's the case, rumors currently linking him with Manchester City don't seem too farfetched.

Wednesday night, as Ancelotti trudged down the tunnel, he may have allowed himself a wry smile. He's intelligent enough to recognize the signs. In his superb autobiography, The Beautiful Game of an Ordinary Genius, he talks about the 2005 Champions League final defeat to Liverpool in Istanbul:

“Tragedy can only produce better performance. Either you emerge, all rowing in the same direction, or you're done for. The process of psychological reconstruction is a lengthy one, perhaps even too long. It took us (AC Milan) the entire 2005-06 season to complete it....I may be crazy, but I think that the defeat at Istanbul wasn't completely negative. It had its reasons and its value. We were ready to start over from scratch.”

In it together with Milan, Ancelotti has been left isolated in Madrid, a lack of cogent togetherness proving the inevitable undoing of the project.

Juventus has reached a Champions League final for the first time since 2003 because of their resilience, spirit and attitude. The performance wasn't flashy. The crucial goal from Alvaro Morata was scrappy in its origin and execution. But how Ancelotti, the “ordinary genius” and former Juve coach, envied what they had.