Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the press in the media room at the Santiago Bernabéu to assess the draw between Real Madrid and Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final first leg: “It was an incredible game. There was so much quality on display, two extraordinary teams. We’re happy with how we played and we hope for a repeat performance on their patch. We could have won it at 2-1, and lost it at 2-3. It was a fair result given what the two teams showed in the game. I was really pleased with how everyone played. I was particularly impressed with the personality, the courage, our desire to press high and make it uncomfortable for City for as long as we could.”

“We put in a great performance, it was a hard-fought game. We started really poorly, conceding the early goal. After that, the team executed the press really well, we won a lot of balls and attacked well on the transitions. We could have won it, we had chances to make it 3-1. They scored two amazing goals but we showed the desire and commitment to get back into the game and level. Now we have the disadvantage of playing away from home but we can put in a repeat performance of what we saw here today.”

Message for the fans
“They always get that little bit extra out of us. They help us deliver our very best. We managed that today and we are confident we can give more of the same in the second leg. I’d urge them to have faith in the team, as ever, because we certainly do. Our ideal would have been to take a slight advantage into the return game but it wouldn’t have changed our approach much.”

The Bernabéu atmosphere
“I love the atmosphere at the Bernabéu, fans who help out, drive us on and enjoy watching their team. We’re delighted with our stadium and the home crowd.”

Tactics
“We approached the game differently to how we normally do. We don’t often press one on one, but we did tonight. It worked really well, we won the ball back time and again. Then you have to drop deeper and make the most of the transitions. We had a chance that fell to Bellingham and another to Vini Jr. that could have had better outcomes.”



“By putting Rodrygo out on the left, I was looking to take advantage of his good run. I asked Vini Jr. to play a Little more central, with Rodrygo down the left. They both worked really hard.”
 
Bellingham’s performance
“He didn’t score, but we hit three goals. The guys up top worked brilliantly: three top quality goals and they all put a good shift in as well. That’s why they weren’t as fresh as they often are. They really put in the effort defensively and that helped us have good control of the game.”

Replacement for suspended Tchouameni in Manchester
“Either Nacho or Militão will play. That has to be the plan for the second leg. We don’t want to do too many calculations, like last year, we want to go head-to-head like we did today. We have the confidence is something positive happening. The grass in Manchester is long, like here. All that’s changing is the fans. We have a slight disadvantage in that but our confidence remains unchanged.”

Substitutes
“It was tough to make changes because I didn’t want to alter our approach to the game. I switched things around when we conceded the two goals to bring a bit more energy. Lunin hardly made a save, you might concede shots from the edge of the box against a team like City, and they found the top corner with their two efforts.”