Ancelotti hails Real Madrid's 'quality and commitment' after emphatic win over Liverpool

Real Madrid manager Carlos Ancelotti praised his team's "quality, experience, energy and commitment" after defeating Liverpool 6-2 on aggregate to advance to the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The holders were in pole position to progress to the last eight after the first-leg 5-2 victory at Anfield, and avoided what Ancelotti described as a "banana skin" by winning the return match 1-0 at the Bernabeu in Madrid, Karim Benzema's 78th-minute goal proving the difference on the night.

It was the third consecutive year Real Madrid had ended Liverpool's Champions League hopes.

"We have so much quality, experience, energy and commitment as a group," Ancelotti said. "We're a modern team because we have all of those attributes. [Luka] Modric and [Tooni] Kroos played brilliantly because they brought the ball out from the back so well and really helped us keep the game under control. Modric and Kroos don't play because of the careers they've had, they play because they deserve to."

Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in the Champions League final last season to secure their 14th European Cup and fifth in the past eight years. On that occasion at the Stade de France, the Spanish giants could count themselves somewhat fortuitous to come away with a 1-0 victory as goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois produced a sensational performance.

Fast forward nearly 10 months and there were no doubts about which team was superior, despite Liverpool racing into a 2-0 lead inside 14 minutes of the first leg.

“Last year gave us so much more confidence and you could see that in this tie, across both games against a very strong side," Ancelotti said. "Now we have to play in the quarter-finals and there are surprises in there like the Italian teams,