In the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu, Los Blancos lost the match 3-2 but managed to go through to the final four of the competition courtesy of a 5-4 aggregate victory.
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Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti feels Bernabeu’s magic helps the players to never give in, after his side went through to the semi-finals of Champions League with a 5-4 aggregate win over Chelsea. In the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu, Los Blancos were trailing by three goals before Rodrygo slotted home to make the aggregate score 4-4 and force the game into extra time. Karim Benzema’s 95th minute header helped the Spanish giants to book a place in the last-4 where they will face either Atletico Madrid or Manchester City.
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Ancelotti said: “We’ve got through because we showed the energy, particularly towards the end of the game to keep ourselves in it. All of the players stood up and were counted and it was a tough night.”
Goals from Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger and Timo Wener put the Blues 4-3 ahed on aggregate, and they were well on track to achieve a remarkable turnaround. But the hosts fought their way back into the game, after Luka Modric delivered a superb assist for Rodrygo to volley home.
And from then on, Ancelotti’s side had the upper hand as Chelsea slowly deteriorated because of the high intensity game they were playing.
The Italian coach added:” We didn’t deserve to be 2-0 down. We struggled on set pieces because we were missing our best player in that department who is Militao and what’s more, their first goal came from a rebound.
“We didn’t show the desire to score goals and after going 2-0 down, the team suffered mentally. I can’t explain any of the rest of it. The magic of this stadium helps the players to never give in”.
The game opened up in the extra time, and the introduction of Edouardo Camavinga and Marcelo gave the hosts more energy while going forward. Five minute into the extra time, Camavinga released Vinicius Jr down the left flank and the Brazilian put in a perfect little cross for Benzema to head home past Edouard Mendy.
“At no stage did I think that it was over, particularly because we were playing here at the Bernabeu. It’s difficult to put it into words, but this magic spurs you on. It helped to give the whole team that energy boost to get through to the semi-finals”
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