Madrid (Reuters)
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti survived a thrilling European night at the Bernabeu as his side rose to a Chelsea revival to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals, despite losing 3-2 after extra time in Tuesday’s second leg.
Real Madrid crossed to the semi-finals with a 5-4 victory on the total score, five weeks after recovering from a goal delay in the return match against Paris Saint-Germain, to win 3-1 and decide his qualification in the round of 16 3-2 on the total score.
“The more I suffer, the happier I am,” Ancelotti said during the press conference. I suffered a lot. We were 2-0 down against Chelsea but I don’t think we deserved it, the team did well. We were not in a hurry to score, we didn’t need to, but for me Chelsea didn’t deserve to go 2-0 up.
Ancelotti praised his players for not giving up, even after trailing 3-0 with a quarter of an hour left, before Rodrygo made the aggregate score 4-4 to force extra time in which Karim Benzema scored the decisive goal.
“We won the match because we had the energy to keep our hopes up,” the Italian coach said. The players were brave and we played like warriors.
“It was a difficult match, we knew it, but it was more complicated. After Chelsea’s second goal, the team struggled psychologically, but the magic of this stadium helps the players and the team a lot not to give up.
Ancelotti said he needed to calm down and assess the squad on Wednesday to understand what really happened.
Ancelotti praised Chelsea’s ability to withstand pressure and said his team had suffered more than usual after Eder Militao, the best defender on set pieces, was suspended.
“We have to be proud of what we’ve done, we had a very difficult last-16 match against Paris Saint-Germain and now against defending champions Chelsea to go to the semi-finals, so I couldn’t be happier.”
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