Manchester – Carlo Ancelotti praised a “surprising” performance of defensive excellence on his side of Real Madrid while the holders fought with a deficit of 80th minute to take control of their equality of the Round-Oout of the League of Champions against Manchester City.
The goals of Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham in the dying minutes earned the holders an essential advantage of 3-2 to bring to the Santiago Bernabeu next Wednesday, a victory that they would have deserved in a match they finished with 20 Shooting and more than twice the expected objectives of the city are counted. Erling Haaland scored in the two halves for the hosts, the latter a controversial penalty for a fault by Dani Ceballos on Phil Foden and the first the only free move of this city.
Madrid may not have finished this game with a cleaning sheet, but a backline started together in the middle of a crisis of figures at the Acelotti team which has always emerged with a lot of credit. Ancelotti also revealed that the back of Madrid four had not even trained together. The crucial platform of Raul Asencio denied Kevin de Bruyne in the box while the fields of land Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni firmly held in an unknown environment. Their task was helped by industry before them while the pressing of Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe prevented the city from progressing quickly in dangerous areas.
Man City tried to make Madrid Los Blancos, but holders of the Champions League do what they always do
James Benge
“It’s a surprising game that we played tonight,” said Ancelotti to display his team. “I did not think that at that time, the team was able to make such a sacrifice that she did this evening.”
When asked if this performance reported the way in advance for his team, who often had difficulties out of possession this season, Ancelotti was categorical.
“It’s the way. We have been talking about it for a long time. It’s the way.
“The season really started now. Despite the difficulties we had, we were able to play very well and get a good result.”
The fact that this defensive performance came with so many missing key characters even more impressive. Ancelotti hopes that Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba will get rid of their injuries for the second floor, but in the meantime, he was extremely impressed by a return of four who had not had as much training session together.
“The highly criticized Tchouameni had a spectacular match, just like Valverde and (Ferland) Mendy,” said Ancelotti. “Raul (Asencio) continues to surprise the maturity he has. Despite the urgency, we were able to get something good.”
For Pep Guardiola, there were far fewer positive points to take. His side of Manchester City had been the second best but found himself in the lead as the final whistle approaches, only for errors to raise in the familiar inappropriate moments. FIRST Ederson erased the ball directly to a Madrid shirt, speaking of Vinicius later drawn on the way to Brahim Diaz. Then Rico Lewis came out second in a 50-50 duel, Vinicius passing the ball in front of an Ederson in Bellingham to turn in a winner of 93rd minute.
Another advance was wasted to go alongside the defeats against Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, Sporting and Brighton.
“Many games at the end we give,” said Guardiola. “At this level, it is so difficult. It is not the first time, it happens several times. There are errors in similar fields. It is difficult to manage, but yes, it happens several times.
“Players make decisions at the moment, sometimes it works and sometimes not. We arrived at the last minute with the result, but we could not keep it. (Liability) belongs to us all, not just the players. I. have no problem accepting that this does not work as if it has worked in the past. “”
