Carlo Ancelotti hails Real Madrid’s defense in win at Man City, reveals surprising detail about backline

MANCHESTER — Carlo Ancelotti hailed a “surprising” performance of defensive excellence from his Real Madrid side as the holders battled back from an 80th-minute deficit to take control of their Champions League knockout round tie against Manchester City.

Goals from Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham in the dying minutes earned the holders a vital 3-2 advantage to take to the Santiago Bernabeu next Wednesday, a victory they would feel they more than deserved in a match they ended with 20 shots and more than twice City’s expected goals tally. Erling Haaland netted in both halves for the hosts, the latter a contentious penalty for a foul by Dani Ceballos on Phil Foden and the former the only free-flowing move that City put together.

Madrid may not have ended this game with a cleansheet but a backline hurled together amid a crisis of numbers in Ancelotti’s side still emerged with plenty of credit. Ancelotti also revealed that the Madrid back four had never even trained together. Raul Asencio’s crucial tackle denied Kevin De Bruyne in the box while midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni held firm in unfamiliar surroundings. Their task was aided by the industry ahead of them as the pressing of Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe kept City from quickly advancing into dangerous areas.

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“It’s a surprising game that we played tonight,” said Ancelotti of his side’s display. “I didn’t think that at this time the team were able to make such a sacrifice as they have done this evening.”

Asked if this performance signaled the way ahead for his team, who have frequently struggled out of possession this season, Ancelotti was emphatic.

“This is the path. We’ve been speaking about this for a long time. This is the way. 

“The season has really started now. Despite the difficulties we’ve had, we’ve been able to play really well and get a good result.”

That this defensive performance came with so many key figures missing made it all the more impressive. Ancelotti is hopeful that Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba will shake off their injuries for the second leg but in the meantime he was extremely impressed with a back four who had not had so much as a training session together.

“The much-criticised Tchouameni had a spectacular game, as did Valverde and [Ferland] Mendy,” said Ancelotti. “Raul [Asencio] continues to surprise for the maturity he has. Despite the emergency, we’ve been able get something good out of it.”

For Pep Guardiola, there were far fewer positives to take. His Manchester City side had been second best but found themselves in the lead as the final whistle approached, only for mistakes to rear their heads at familiarly inopportune moments. First Ederson cleared the ball straight to a Madrid shirt, subsequently parrying Vinicius’ shot straight into the path of Brahim Diaz. Then Rico Lewis came out second in a 50-50 duel, Vinicius flicking the ball past an onrushing Ederson for Bellingham to turn in a 93rd-minute winner.

Another lead frittered away to go alongside defeats to Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, Sporting and Brighton. 

“Many games at the end we give away,” said Guardiola. “At that level, it is so difficult. It is not the first time, it happens many times. There are mistakes in similar areas. It is difficult to manage but yeah, it happens many times.

“Players take decisions in the moment, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. We arrived in the last minute with the result but we could not keep it. [The responsibility] belongs to all of us, not just the players. I have not a problem to accept that it doesn’t work like it worked in the past. It is all of us.”