Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti survived a thrilling European night at the Bernabeu as his side bounced back once morest a Chelsea awakening to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals despite losing 2-3 following extra time in Tuesday’s second leg.
Real Madrid crossed to the semi-finals with a 5-4 victory on the aggregate score, five weeks following recovering from a goal delay in the second leg once morest Paris Saint-Germain to win 3-1 and decide his qualification in the round of 16 3-2 on the aggregate score.
“The more I suffer, the happier I am,” Ancelotti said. We were 3-0 down once morest 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 3-0.”
Ancelotti praised his players for not giving up, even following 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 said. The players were brave and we played like warriors, it was a tough match, we knew that, but it was more complicated. After Chelsea’s second goal, the team suffered 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 following Eder Militao, the best defender on set pieces, was suspended.
“We have to be proud of what we did, we had a very difficult last-16 match once morest Paris Saint-Germain and now once morest the defending champions Chelsea to go to the semi-finals, so I mightn’t be happier.”
