Ancelotti happy with Real Madrid s effort in 2 1 home win over Atletico

MADRID – Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was pleased with his side’s resilience, as they earned a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in a hard-fought first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on March 4.

Brahim Diaz scored the second-half winner after Atletico forward Julian Alvarez had cancelled out Rodrygo’s opener.

Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe both missed good chances that could have given Real a bigger margin for the second leg, but Ancelotti was not in the mood to lament missed opportunities.

The Italian preferred to stick to the positives, which is a win against what he considers one of Europe’s best teams this season, adding that his players will need to redouble their efforts to make the most of their narrow advantage and continue their title defence.

“These are evenly matched games. It’s a round of 16 in the Champions League and it could be a final or a semi-final. Atletico are a top team in Europe and you can’t think about finishing the tie in the first leg,” Ancelotti insisted.

“We’ve gained a small advantage that gives us confidence for the second leg but that’s it. It was a difficult match as usual. It always is against Atleti.

“In the first half, we lost too many balls, we had unnecessary mistakes that almost cost us, they levelled the game with Julian Alvarez. But in the second half, we were better. We were able to take advantage and we did it.”

Ancelotti also downplayed what seemed to be a disappointing night for Mbappe and Vinicius, praising the work of Atletico’s defence in neutralising his pair of world-class attackers.

“I think playing against Atletico’s defence is not that easy a task,” he added. “We haven’t had many chances throughout the match and the two