Carlo Ancelotti appeared in the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu following the Champions League semi-final first leg against Manchester City. The Italian Boss reached yet another Champions League milestone moving level with Sir Alex Ferguson as the coach to have overseen the most games in the competition's history in its current format. Following the semi-final first leg against Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabéu, both coaches sit on 190 games. On his way to the figure, Ancelotti has taken charge of eight teams: Parma (6), Juventus (10), Milan (73), Chelsea (18), PSG (10), Bayern Munich (12), Napoli (12) and Real Madrid (49).
Our coach has also won more games than any other since the creation of the Champions League in the 1992/93 campaign. Ancelotti has picked up 107 victories, this season eclipsing Ferguson's 102. The Italian is also the only manager to have won the European Cup on four occasions (twice with Real Madrid and twice with Milan).
The coach underlined: "We could have won it, we deserved to but these things happen. We come away with positive feelings ahead of the return leg because we played the game well. In the opening 20 minutes they had a lot of the ball but they didn't cause us problems. It's normal for Manchester City to have possession but that shouldn't drive us mad. We got the goal and from then on we played really well, controlling the game and creating opportunities. We're very pleased with how we went about the game and I hope to see a repeat performance in the return leg”.
The match in Manchester: “They'll push harder because they're at home. Our approach was good and we controlled Manchester City well in the second half. We moved the ball more and created more chances. In the first half we weren't very patient in playing the ball out. We could have had more of the ball in the first 20 minutes, like we did in the second half”.
Solid defensive efforts: “We focused on controlling the players who drift between the lines like De Bruyne and Gündoğan. Everyone did a fantastic job. We did brilliantly from a defensive perspective and they didn't create many chances at all. One one-on-one which was offside and long-range shots. Nothing more. The team was very committed. Rüdiger put in a fantastic performance”.
Manchester City's goal: "It was out. It's not me saying that. Technology says so. It was shown by beIN Sports. But not VAR because they didn't see it. It seems strange to me that they didn't check it properly. Small details. It was a corner for us, but the referee wasn't very attentive. And on top of that I got a yellow card and I wasn't even playing. He wasn't paying much attention because the players on the pitch deserved more yellow cards”.
Demanding schedule: "Bearing in mind that we played on Saturday at midnight, the team was very good and played a very solid game physically. Now we have more time to recover well and prepare for Wednesday's game”.
Team veterans: "The veterans are the ones who set the tempo of the game. In this type of match they're very important in this sense. They give confidence to the youngsters so that they are determined to do well”.
Camavinga: "Sometimes we try to take him off the wing because when we had the ball he created problems in the second half and gave Vini Jr. more space out wide. He's a real guarantee in every sense of the word. As a full-back he's improving very quickly. He defends and positions himself very well”.
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