Most successful managers in UEFA Champions League history: List

UEFA Champions League has delivered on memorable moments over the years. Incredible scenes of drama and tragedy, and central to all this has been the managers. The players get all the glory on the pitch, but managers are just as important (sometimes even more so) than they are. So we've had a look at all the most successful managers in UEFA Champions League history and come up with the top 5.

5. Jose Mourinho

Clubs: Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Totteham Hotspur

Matches: 151

Points- 276

Trophies Won: 2004 (Porto), 2010 (Inter)

José Mourinho is a bit like Game of Thrones in that when he first showed up he was brutal, charming and instantly hypnotic but by the end, he was incoherent, contradictory and just plain annoying.

The Portuguese shook up the world by winning the Champions League with Porto before moving to Chelsea and turning them into one of the best teams in Europe almost overnight.

He failed to capture Euro glory there but at Inter he pulled off perhaps the greatest upset to narrative in history as his brutishly organised Inter punctuated Pep Guardiola's glorious Barcelona side, preventing them from 'threepeating' with a monstrously powerful defensive display in 2010. It's been all downhill since then really, even if he did manage to restore Real Madrid's sense of honour by helping end their round-of-16 jinx, paving the way for all their Champions League success.

But even though the ending was weak, the beginning was amazing, just like Game of Thrones.

4. Pep Guardiola

Clubs: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City

Matches: 145

Points: 305

Trophies Won: 2009, 2011 (Barcelona)

As with Van Gaal, sometimes it's not about how many you win but how you win them. And nobody on planet earth has ever won the Champions League as brilliantly as Guardiola has. The Catalan coach scorched the earth in 2009, his first season in senior management, with a Treble win that was born from a style of play that was like nothing the world had seen. It was a quantum leap in the game, and the entirety of modern football has been shaped by both that, and the 2011 sequel that was perhaps even better.

Only a literal act of God in 2010 and their own historic profligacy in 2012 prevented them from winning four in a row. They were a spectacular side the likes of which we may never see again.

So even though Guardiola has made just one final since that 2011 victory, losing to a beatable domestic rival. And even though he has struggled to translate his magnificent domestic dominance (with both Bayern Munich and Manchester City) into European glory, he places second on the list. Whatever you want to say about him (and his weirdly poor record in away knock-out games) there is no doubt that Pep Guardiola profoundly changed the Champions League for the better.

3. Arsene Wenger

Clubs: Arsenal

Matches: 194

Points: 315

Arsene Wenger revolutionised football in England on his arrival at Arsenal in 1996 and while he enjoyed great success during his 22 year stay there, he failed to win a Champions League honour in his managerial career.

He did lead the Gunners to the 2006 final, where they lost to Barcelona - though he did ensure that his side qualified for the Champions League on a regular basis, as seen by the points he garnered in the competition.

2. Carlo Ancelotti

Clubs: Parma, Juventus, Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Napoli.

Matches: 176

Points: 333

Trophies Won: 2003, 2007 (Milan), 2014 (Real Madrid)

The man to take advantage of Mourinho's unintentional planning at the Santiago Bernabeu was Uncle Carlo. The lovely Italian coach helped Real Madrid get over the hump and win "La Decima" in 2014, allowing him to equal Bob Paisley with three triumphs. He's currently back at the Bernabeu looking to replicate that same magic.

Of course, he arrived in Madrid (the first time) as an absolute legend, having guided Milan to two Champions League wins that really ought to have been four in five years but for two astonishing bottle jobs in the 2004 quarter-final against Deportivo and the 2005 final against Liverpool.

1. Sir Alex Ferguson

Clubs: Manchester United

Matches: 205

Points: 381

Trophies Won: 1999, 2008

Sir Alex Ferguson loses the head-to-head with Del Bosque but ranks above him through the fact that he battered just about everyone else at least once during his phenomenally long run in the Champions League (no one can match the 194 matches he's taken charge of). Sir Alex was, of course, the man behind the miracle minute in 1999, and he was also at the helm for the radically different 2008 juggernaut of a side.

He probably would have more Champions League wins than any other manager but he had the misfortune of running head-first into the greatest team of all-time in 2009 and 2011. And although his Champions League story ended in frustration at his inability to capture that third crown, he will always be remembered as one of the most successful managers in UEFA Champions League history.