Wednesday 12 / March / 2025
MADRID: Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is confident that his side can come through the pressure of their Champions League return leg away to local rivals Atletico Madrid on Wednesday to book a place in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Goals from Rodrygo and Brahim Diaz gave Ancelotti's side a narrow 2-1 win in the first leg and speaking to the press ahead of Wednesday's visit across town, the Italian said it was a "more complicated round of 16 than other years," but insisted "we are confident."
However, he admitted his side would have to dip deep to reach the last-eight.
"Games with Atletico have always been competitive, sometimes they have won, other times we have," he said, admitting the players had prepared for a penalty shootout.
"When we make the list of penalty takes, we take into account what we saw in training, if a player is more precise, confident, if he looks at the goalkeeper or not... When the shoot-out comes, the mental aspect is very important. The mental aspect is more important than the technical aspect," said the Real Madrid coach.
Finally, Ancelotti said he would "foresee" what tactics Atletico coach Diego Simeone could try on Wednesday, "but I prefer to focus on what we will do, because Atletico can play in many ways, offensive, defensive and on the counter-attack."
Kylian Mbappe didn't participate in Tuesday's training session, but the club is confident he will have no problems in starting on Wednesday.
