This is Carlo Ancelotti’s 200th Champions League match as a coach, his 1,331st game over a wildly successful career stretching back 30 years at the most high-pressure clubs on earth, and still he is nervous. He has seen it all and has won this competition as a coach four times, more than anyone else ever, including the manager he faces on Tuesday night, but he still can’t help it. Before games, he admits, there’s a moment when the heart rate increases and the sweats start; after them, the best he can hope for is relief.
“Defeat is suffering. Victory is … happiness?” Ancelotti said, as Real Madrid, who consider this trophy their own, prepared to meet Manchester City, who hold it. “No. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s a relief. There’s happiness if you win a title, but in individual games [only] relief: for a few days, you’re calmer. But then suffering is part of your work, it’s what keeps you alive: the pressure, the stress.”
It is about how you embrace that, live with it, and Madrid’s manager believes what was missing when his side collapsed to a 4-0 defeat at the Etihad last season was character. “We played without courage, without personality,” Ancelotti said.
City, the favourites for the Champions League, and Madrid meet for the fourth time in the last five seasons. In 2020, City knocked Madrid out in the last 16. In 2022, Madrid produced that comeback, another miracle for the ages. Last year, there was something of a mission about Manchester City as they took Madrid apart. For the first 15 minutes, Ancelotti’s team averaged less than a pass a minute. Vinícius Júnior left Manchester declaring: “This can’t happen next year.”
It shouldn’t. Then, with Barcelona walking the league, Ancelotti’s future at the Bernabéu was not secure, but a year on he continues. Madrid are stronger now, the league title close to being reclaimed, and lessons have been learned.
“Courage and personality are fundamental in this kind of game,” Ancelotti said. “The mental element is important: we need personality. But it was not just mentality, character; it was also technical, football. They pressed us high and we did not find solutions, we didn’t manage that. We want to avoid that in this tie.
“We have had time to prepare this. We have prepared well and I trust we will bring out the best in us in every sense: mentally, physically, technically. We have the quality to compete.”
The coach said he wouldn’t do “anything strange”, telling journalists not to worry: “You’re not going to get the starting XI wrong.” He then paused, laughed and added: “Well, there could be …” before concluding: “You might get one name wrong, but no more: the team is pretty clear.”
The one doubt may be over central defence, with Aurélien Tchouaméni likely to start ahead of Nacho Fernández, and Eduardo Camavinga taking his place in midfield. The other central defender will be Toni Rüdiger, who played in the first leg last year, the game finishing 1-1, but not in the second when Madrid were overrun, and has been undisputed this season.
“The coach didn’t apologise after the second game last year but he doesn’t need to,” Rüdiger said of his omission. “As a player I have to accept, even if it’s hard. In the first game I think we all did a great job keeping [Erling] Haaland quiet: my teammates controlled the ball and he did not get as many balls as he wished.
“He’s definitely one of the strongest [strikers] I have played. If I can say one who is very tough it was Kun Agüero, but it is about Haaland now. He’s not easy to control. He lives off passes from his teammates.”
After the first leg last year photos appeared of Rüdiger sticking his face in one of Haaland’s armpits, more antics from a player who, to the delighted of the Bernabéu, has admitted he is a “little mad”.
“I saw the pictures and the videos,” he said here, “but these aren’t things I plan and I don’t have any plan for tomorrow. It’s just a feeling in the moment. I could tell you that it’s all about the team and things like that, but I will take the duel as personal. It’s me as a defensive player against a super striker.
“We will not only sit back and watch City have possession but that is also part of the game. We will press but there will be phases where we have to defend more and we are willing to do that. Whatever comes our way is part of it.
We have to be positive about getting to the next stage. I feel the confidence, we are in good shape, in a good mood, the team feels like a family and I am very sure we are going to win. It is tough but we are Real Madrid.”
