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Carlo Ancelotti believes Liverpool can knock Real Madrid out despite three-goal advantage.
Carlo Ancelotti has praised his team for their magnificent display, coming back from a two-goal deficit to win the game with a three-goal margin; however, despite their healthy lead, he believes the tie is not over.
Real Madrid were 5-2 victors at Anfield on Tuesday night after Liverpool blew a two-goal lead, giving Real Madrid the advantage heading into the return leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real Madrid establish healthy lead
Liverpool seized the lead in the fourth minute due to a goal from Darwin Nunez, and Mohamed Salah extended their lead 10 minutes later.
Vinicius started Real Madrid’s comeback in the 21st minute before scoring the equaliser in the 36th minute.
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Eder Militao then put Carlo Ancelotti's men ahead just after half-time, heralding what was to come in the next 45 minutes. Karim Benzema's goal in the 55th minute stretched the margin even more. The Frenchman sunk Liverpool even further as he grabbed his brace in the 81st minute of the game to make it 5-2.
The winning manager, Carlo Ancelotti, believes it was a difficult victory because of the poor start his team had, but he claims they never waivered because they were confident in their own abilities.
"Winning like this isn't easy, above all because of how the match began,” Ancelotti said, according to the BBC.
“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.”
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Ancelotti also claimed that his team's comeback against Manchester City in last season's semi-final gave him hope despite their shaky start against Liverpool today. He pointed out the tactical tweaks he made, explaining that they had to drop Valverde deeper on the right flank to cope with the dangers of Liverpool’s attack.
"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.”
Ancelotti on the second leg
Carlo Ancelotti shared that he is expecting a difficult second-leg at home, where his team would have to work hard to finish the job they have started.
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He explained that Liverpool had them on the ropes in the first-half of the first-leg because of their quality, and they were very capable of hurting them in the reverse fixture.
"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.”
"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. I want to praise Rodrygo because he did incredible work up and down the pitch producing just what I'd asked of him."
Real Madrid would host Liverpool on March 3rd, at the Santiago Bernabeu.
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