Quality football and tactics were on display on Tuesday night as Real Madrid and Manchester City played out an exciting 3 – 3 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Both teams, who are now regular opponents in Europe’s elite competition, were expected to deliver the best football of the knockout rounds and they did. Top-drawer goals from Bernardo Silva, an own goal by Ruben Dias, Rodrygo Goes, Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Fede Valverde rounded up the night’s action.
All goals were Puskas-award quality and it showed how much talent is available in both teams.
Ancelotti, who has gotten the shorter end of the stick in this clash in recent times expressed satisfaction at how the game went, even though all the advantage has been handed to Manchester City.
He described it as an advertisement for football and expected the sport’s popularity to soar on the back of that games and more games like that.
“Great match, it was an advert for football, but it was always going to be that way given the quality that was on the pitch,” Ancelotti said to Italian media, who came to cover the coach’s work.
Then he spoke about his team’s lapses which Guardiola’s team were able to take advantage of.
“Whenever we had the chance to keep the pace high, we controlled the game well. They punished us with two goals that flew straight into the top corner.”
“A draw was a fair result. Knowing that we fought with them on level terms gives us a lot of confidence heading into the return leg. The only regret is for some opportunities that we could have done better with when the scores were at 2-1.”
Finally, he spoke about Real Madrid’s decision to close the roof of their stadium as approved by UEFA and if the atmosphere inside helped his team.
“Our stadium helps us a lot,” he said. “But now we will have to do the same without the support of our stadium behind us.”
After a one-week break from league football, Los Blancos will return to action in the Spanish top flight with a trip to Mallorca on 13 April before they travel down to England to face Manchester City in the second leg of their crunch clash.
They remain the favourites to win the match and the competition as a whole but their fans will remember City’s performance against them last season and clutch their pearls.
