Ancelotti warns Madrid must be ready to ´fight and sacrifice´ in Chelsea second leg

Carlo Ancelotti was pleased with Real Madrid’s commanding 2-0 win against Chelsea but stressed they must be ready to “fight and sacrifice” in the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Madrid look set to advance to the Champions League semi-finals for the third consecutive season after they breezed past Frank Lampard’s out-of-form side at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio either side of a red card for Ben Chilwell rounded out a dominant performance from the reigning champions, who will travel to London for the return match next week.

The defeat leaves Chelsea without a goal in four games in all competitions, but Ancelotti remained steadfast that Los Blancos would need to work hard to finish the job in the second leg.

“I know football really well and my players understand that we have another 90 minutes to play, and it will be difficult, and we have to be ready,” he told BT Sport.

“We won 2-0, we took advantage of this game, but it’s not done yet. Chelsea is a good team with good players, and we have to fight and sacrifice at Stamford Bridge. This is absolutely normal – it’s a quarter-final of the Champions League.

“We are satisfied with the game, it was a good game, and now we focus on the next.”

The gentlemen’s’ game #UCL pic.twitter.com/9cJfaU6pHP

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) April 12, 2023

Luka Modric’s close miss and a squandered late chance from Benzema kept the score down after Chelsea were reduced to 10 men, but the Madrid boss did not feel his side had failed in not finding another goal before the final whistle.

He said: “When we were against 10 men, they put a low block, and it was not easy to find solutions.

“I think we spent a lot of energy in the game trying to press high, and so at the end, we were not so fresh to try to find another goal, but the result and the performance was good.”

Wednesday’s encounter saw Ancelotti go head-to-head with Lampard in the dugout, with the Madrid boss having coached his opposite number while himself Chelsea manager between 2009 and 2011.

“I have a good memory of him – a fantastic player,” Ancelotti said when asked about Lampard. “I hope he will be a fantastic manager but not necessarily next Tuesday.”