Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti was pleased with his side’s resilience as they earned a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid at the Bernabeu in the hard-fought first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie on Tuesday.
Brahim Diaz scored the second-half winner after Atletico forward Julian Alvarez had cancelled out Rodrygo’s opener.
Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe both missed good chances that could have given Real a bigger margin for the second leg but Ancelotti was not in the mood to lament missed opportunities.
He preferred to stick with the positive which is a win against what he considers one of Europe’s best teams this season and said his players will need even more effort to make the most of their narrow advantage to advance in their title defence.
“These are evenly matched games. It’s a Round of 16 in the Champions League as it could be a final or a semi-final. Atletico are a top team in Europe and you can’t think about finishing the tie in the first leg,” Ancelotti told a press conference.
“We’ve gained a small advantage that gives us confidence for the second leg but that’s it. It was a difficult match … as usual. It always is against Atleti.
“In the first half we lost too many balls, we had unnecessary mistakes that almost cost us, they levelled the game with Julian Alvarez. But in the second half we were better. We were able to take advantage and we did it.”
Ancelotti downplayed what seemed to be a disappointing night for Mbappe and Vinicius, praising the work of Atletico’s defence in neutralising his pair of world-class attackers.
“I think playing against Atletico’s defence is not that easy a task,” Ancelotti said. “We haven’t had many chances throughout the match and the two of them have worked hard, they’ve fought hard…
“They haven’t had the chance to show the quality we all know they have but they’ve got the return leg to do it.”
The winners of the tie will surely meet Arsenal, who are in a virtually unassailable position to reach the quarter-finals after a 7-1 victory at PSV Eindhoven in Tuesday’s first leg.
