Around this time closing 12 months, simply after Real Madrid had by some means survived in opposition to Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti concluded that he will have to be immortal, however it isn’t a idea he plans to place to the check – and he surely does not wish to undergo that once more . Which is why the Italian trainer has requested his staff to forget about the doubts he insists might be even more than Liverpool’s and put away their calculators as they step into the Santiago Bernabéu for the Champions League closing‑16 2d leg on Wednesday, 5-2 up From the primary.
There is not any level protective a lead and making an allowance for it finished is a prelude to finding it isn’t. So Ancelotti says Madrid will “attack more than defend”. He speaks from revel in: he misplaced essentially the most absurd last of all having been 3-0 up in opposition to Liverpool in Istanbul and 17 years later received an much more fantastic European Cup after beating the similar staff, the realization of a choice of comebacks that was once slightly plausible. En direction he discovered himself in virtually the similar state of affairs his aspect come upon now.
In the quarter-final in April 2022, Madrid received 3–1 at Stamford Bridge. But with quarter-hour closing, Chelsea had overturned the ranking to guide 3–0, 4–3 on combination. Outplayed and heading out, Madrid by some means discovered some way again: Rodrygo took the sport to overtime, the place Karim Benzema received it, 5–4 on combination. There is a scene within the contemporary documentary Real Madrid: Until the End when, exhausted, sitting shattered in his dressing room straight away after the sport, Ancelotti says: “If I didn’t die today, I’m immortal.
“I don’t externalize much tension and pressure but there are moments when you suffer and that was one of them,” he mentioned. You be told, too; that a minimum of is the hope. Madrid go back to European knockout nights on the Bernabéu, the place closing season they got here again in opposition to Paris Saint‑Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Three targets up from the primary leg at Anfield, the parallels with the Chelsea sport are provide, the chief believes. “We haven’t spoken a lot about that,” Ancelotti mentioned. ,[But] we’ve got a reside reminiscence from closing 12 months that may lend a hand us. We will attempt to make it a special sport.
“Mentally, the game tomorrow is more complicated for us than Liverpool. Liverpool have to come full-on, to get the best they can from the first minute to the last, no matter what happens. The first leg result creates doubts in us in that sense. We will try to be at our best from the first minute, but it is inevitable that we will have more doubts than our opponents.
“The message is quite simple: there are no calculations. We have to play the best way we can. Our idea is not to calculate, but to repeat the open match that we had in the first game. We certainly won’t play thinking that we have an advantage in the score. It will be open and we want to play our best attacking football. Liverpool will come here and try to turn the tie around. We don’t only think of defending. No, we think more about attacking.
Ancelotti said Madrid “did lots of things well” at Anfield, although Antonio Rüdiger warned they could not repeat the opening 15 minutes, when they found themselves two down. Asked whether he could see the Liverpool that arrived in Madrid being the same team that beat Manchester United 7–0, Rüdiger replied: “Yes.”
How then do you stop them gaining momentum, he was asked. “By not sleeping in the first 15 minutes,” he said. “It is very important for us to find the right balance: not only come to defense and say: ‘OK, we have a three-goal lead.’”
Rüdiger additionally speaks from revel in: This time closing 12 months, he was once at the different aspect. Yet if there’s a caution there for Madrid, there’s one for Liverpool too. After all, Madrid discovered some way thru, which by some means they at all times did closing season.
“When you play against Madrid you feel that the Santiago Bernabéu is something different,” mentioned the previous Chelsea defender. “Last 12 months it was once arduous for me on the Bernabéu. I had by no means observed that. My former coaches at all times say: ‘You play in opposition to Madrid, you play in opposition to the badge.’ They at all times turn out folks proper – that this badge is one thing larger. The surroundings was once implausible and I’m extra satisfied to be a part of Madrid now and notice it as a Madrid fan.”