‘Unfortunately, this tie isn’t finished’: Carlo Ancelotti insists there is ‘no way’ Real Madrid’s Champions League tie with Liverpool is over despite the European champions earning a ‘historic’ 5-2 victory at Anfield
Carlo Ancelotti insists his Real Madrid side still have work to do in their Champions League last-16 tie against Liverpool despite thrashing the Premier League side 5-2 in the first leg at Anfield.
Ancelotti, who has won the Champions League a record four times as a coach, praised the defending champions performance on Tuesday night.
The Real Madrid head coach lauded a ‘historic win’, but warned they would still have to suffer in the second leg despite their three-goal cushion.
‘It was an historic win, mostly because if you consider where we played and how we started the game, falling two goals behind,’ Ancelotti said. ‘But we never backed down and kept our cool, not panicked and we turned around a very difficult game.’
‘Winning like this isn’t easy, above all because of how the match began. We never lost confidence and little by little we won control of the ball. We were efficient up front and Vinicius Junior produced an incredible performance.
Real Madrid seized control of the Champions League last-16 tie by thrashing Liverpool 5-2
Carlo Ancelotti praised the ‘historic win’ but insisted his side have work to do in the second leg
‘This is only the first part of a knockout tie, it’s gone our way, but we’ll need to imagine that in the second leg we’ll have to suffer and work hard.
‘Obviously we didn’t expect to start like we did but at 2-0 down I thought about the City away leg last year in the hope that we could do the same – but it turned out even better.
‘They were doing us damage down our left but when we were better in our attacks, we moved Valverde a little bit towards that danger and we then defended better.
‘Liverpool is a great team which made us suffer in the first half so I’d say that, unfortunately, this tie isn’t finished. No way.’
Real Madrid had fallen behind to goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah in the opening stages.
Real Madrid became the first team to score five goals against Liverpool at Anfield in Europe
Ancelotti praised Vinicius Junior for producing an ‘incredible performance’ in the first leg
The Spanish champions levelled before the break with two goals from Vinicius Junior.
Real Madrid seized control of the tie when Eder Militao headed in a Luka Modric free-kick at the start of the second half.
A Karim Benzema brace saw Real Madrid become the first side to score five goals against Liverpool at Anfield in a European competition.
Liverpool will seek to make an unlikely comeback when they visit the Bernabeu for the second leg on March 15.