Carlo Ancelotti feels second leg is trickier for Real Madrid than Liverpool

Around this time last year, just after Real Madrid had somehow survived against Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti concluded that he must be immortal, but it’s not a theory he plans to put to the test – and he certainly doesn’t want to go through that again. Which is why the Italian coach has asked his team to ignore the doubts he insists will be even greater than Liverpool’s and put away their calculators as they step into the Santiago Bernabéu for the Champions League last‑16 second leg on Wednesday, 5-2 up from the first.

There is no point protecting a lead and considering it done is a prelude to discovering it’s not. So Ancelotti says Madrid will “attack more than defend”. He speaks from experience: he lost the most absurd final of all having been 3-0 up against Liverpool in Istanbul and 17 years later won an even more incredible European Cup after beating the same team, the conclusion of a collection of comebacks that was barely believable. En route he found himself in almost the same situation his side encounter now.

In the quarter-final in April 2022, Madrid won 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. But with 15 minutes remaining, Chelsea had overturned the score to lead 3-0, 4-3 on aggregate. Outplayed and heading out, somehow Madrid found a way back: Rodrygo took the game to extra time, where Karim Benzema won it, 5-4 on aggregate. There is a scene in the recent documentary Real Madrid: Until the End when, exhausted, sitting shattered in his dressing room immediately after the game, Ancelotti says: “If I didn’t die today, I’m immortal.

“I don’t externalise much tension and pressure but there are moments when you suffer and that was one of them,” he said. You learn, too; that at least is the hope. Madrid return to European knockout