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Rafa Benitez became a surprise replacement for Carlo Ancelotti

Rafa Benitez became a surprise replacement for Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, but one of his former players – Jamie Carragher – thinks that the Spaniard will be a success at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Benitez is no stranger to life at Madrid after having grown up here as a player and as a manager for the B team. However, this will be his first opportunity to take charge of the first-team and thus interact daily with president Florentino Perez, who is not someone to take failure very easily. Ancelotti learnt this the hard way after being sacked just 12 months after winning the Champions League.

The Italian had paid a huge price for failing to win any major honour towards the end of the season. Benitez has been immensely successful in terms of winning trophies. He is especially happy to have a CV that contains many cup competitions under his belt. The 51-year-old has already won the likes of the Champions League, Europa League, and la Liga titles. Carragher played a huge part in Benitez being the last Liverpool boss to have led the club to European success. The defender was speaking after playing a part in the 4-2 defeat for Liverpool legends against Real Madrid legends.

“I think so. At every club he has been at he has won titles. At Napoli he won the Super Cup and Italian Cup, at Liverpool the Champions League…I think he won a couple of trophies at Inter.He always wins titles but at Madrid the pressure is huge and he arrives just after Barça has won the treble. Now Madrid need to respond with trophies and Benítez is a coach who always wins something. Why not? He has already won the Champions League. With Liverpool he always reached the quarter-finals, the semi-finals,” said Carragher.

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