Sir Alex targets Super Cup treble

Previous triumphs
The 66-year-old manager has already won the competition twice, with Aberdeen FC in 1983 (beating Hamburger SV 2-0 on aggregate) and United in 1991 (beating FK Crvena Zvezda 1-0 at Old Trafford), and was also a loser in the 1999 game, with his side defeated 1-0 by Sven-Göran Eriksson's S.S. Lazio. He will set a new record as the most successful coach in the history of the UEFA Super Cup if he can win the competition for a third time at the Stade Louis II.

Double winners
Sir Alex is one of five coaches to have won the competition twice along with Raymond Goethals (RSC Anderlecht, 1976 and 1978), Arrigo Sacchi (AC Milan, 1989 and 1990), Louis van Gaal (AFC Ajax, 1995 and FC Barcelona 1997) and Carlo Ancelotti (AC Milan, 2003 and 2007). Ferguson and Van Gaal remain the only coaches to have won the competition with more than one team.

Appearance record
The veteran United manager is already the most experienced coach in the competition, as the only manager to have led a side at more than two UEFA Super Cup finals. He is one of eight coaches to have both won and lost a UEFA Super Cup game along with Bob Paisley (Liverpool FC, won 1977, lost 1978), Brian Clough (Nottingham Forest FC, won 1979, lost 1980), Johan Cruyff (FC Barcelona, won 1992, lost 1989), Fabio Capello (AC Milan, won 1994, lost 1993), Nevio Scala (won with Parma FC 1993, lost with BV Borussia Dortmund 1997), Vicente Del Bosque (Real Madrid CF, won 2000, lost 2002) and Juande Ramos (Sevilla FC, won 2006, lost 2007). Scala and Sir Alex are the only coaches to have won and lost the UEFA Super Cup with different sides while Guus Hiddink is the only one to have coached two clubs in UEFA Super Cup games without a win. His PSV Eindhoven side lost in the 1988 game, while ten years later his Madrid team were beaten by Chelsea FC.

Dutch courage
However, while the odds look stacked against Zenit, coach Dick Advocaat can take comfort from the fact that a Dutch coach has claimed the UEFA Super Cup five times. In addition to Van Gaal's two triumphs, Gregorius Knobel won the competition with Ajax in 1973, Aad de Mos triumphed with Belgium's KV Mechelen in 1988 and Cruyff took the crown with Barcelona in 1992. Encouragingly for Advocaat, three of those triumphs came with foreign clubs.

National totals
Italian coaches – like Serie A clubs – have dominated the UEFA Super Cup. They have won the competition nine times, all of them with a local coach with the exception of Eriksson's Lazio in 1999. Gianluca Villa's 1998 victory with Chelsea and his Stamford Bridge successor Claudio Ranieri's 2004 success as Valencia CF coach makes the total ten wins for Italian managers. Dutch coaches have triumphed five times, with four wins for Spanish bosses, three for English managers, and two each for managers from Belgium, Romania and Scotland. Coaches from Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden and France have all won one UEFA Super Cup each.