Champions League

Ancelotti’s gut feeling helped Real into the quarter-finals

Carlo Ancelotti

(Bild: APA/AFP/Thomas COEX)

The quarter-final field is complete, and from now on the real money will be made in the Champions League. Defending champions Real Madrid are also in the mix after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over city rivals Atletico. The last Real scorer, Antonio Rüdiger, who sealed the clash with Arsenal with his goal, was only able to score thanks to coach Carlo Ancelotti's gut feeling. Dortmund will face Barcelona in another quarter-final clash.

"I'm really happy. It's extremely important to have won this game," said Real star Jude Bellingham after the 4:2 penalty shoot-out win at the Metropolitano stadium. The score was 1-0 after 120 minutes in the second leg of the round of 16 tie after Conor Gallagher had scored for Atletico in the first minute. "There's a different mentality when we go into these games. We know there's a certain way to win games. We're very good at that," Bellingham explained.

"We made it more difficult by losing unnecessary balls that put us in the wrong position time and time again," said coach Ancelotti. "If they had scored the 2-0, the game could have got out of hand." ÖFB team captain David Alaba was not in action on Wednesday.

Atletico couldn't overcome Real
Rüdiger converted the last penalty for the "royals" in the end, somewhat fortunately, as Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak had his hand on it. It was preceded by a bizarre scene: Julian Alvarez scored to make it 2:2, but slipped with his standing leg and, according to the referees, touched the ball twice - the goal did not count for Atletico. "We had no luck. That's the explanation," said Oblak on the fifth Champions League knockout in a row against their city rivals.

The fact that Rüdiger stepped up to take the ultimately decisive penalty was a last-minute decision by Ancelotti. "We had doubts between him and Endrick. I saw the look on Endrick's face and decided in favor of Rüdiger," said the Italian. Another argument in favor of the German was the fact that he was the last man to score in last season's quarter-final "against Manchester City".

BVB "the underdog"against Barcelona
Borussia Dortmund, meanwhile, defeated Lille 2:1 in the second leg and will now face FC Barcelona. Marcel Sabitzer played in central midfield for the return match in France. "A great team performance. It was unfortunate that we went a goal behind, but the team still dominated the game," said coach Niko Kovac afterwards. "Lille are a strong team on the ball. But Barcelona will surpass them, and by a lot," added the Croatian. "We are definitely the underdogs," said goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

The other matches in the quarter-finals are Aston Villa against Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich against Inter Milan. Should Bayern and BVB prevail, the next German duel will take place in the semi-finals. An all-English semi-final between Arsenal and Aston Villa is also possible. The quarter-finals will be played on April 8/9 and 15/16.

The draw for the final in Munich was made on February 21. The seeding was based on the rankings in the league phase, which should become more important with this new procedure. Liverpool and Barca, who finished first and second in the league phase, could only have met in the final - had Liverpool not been defeated by PSG.