Ancelotti relieved as Simeone rues penalty at CL last 16 tie

Real Madrid fans and players celebrated their hard-fought win against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday to earn a quarter-final berth in the Champions League, but manager Carlo Ancelotti was more relieved than rapturous at what he said was a subpar performance.

Real secured the victory 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the tie ended 2-2 in aggregate as the defending champions bid for a record-extending 16th European Cup win.

Ancelotti was disappointed that Real conceded a goal inside the first minute that levelled the tie after Real had secured a 2-1 first-leg advantage at home last week.

He urged his players to be sharper as they prepare to face Arsenal for a place in the semis.

“I have tried to explain to my players that the priority was not to make the game more complicated than it already was,” Ancelotti said.

“We made it more difficult by losing unnecessary balls that constantly found us out of position… If they scored 2-0, then the game could have got out of control… We played better as the game progressed, had our chances, but we need to improve in our focus and concentration,” he said.

“We always have to look for improvement. The tie was evenly matched and a mistake could have been costly. We wanted to finish the game before penalties, sure, but here we are, still fighting and in contention, as is customary at this club.”

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone cast suspicion on the decision to rule out Julian Alvarez’s penalty in his team’s Champions League defeat by Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Los Blancos won 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw in the last 16 tie, with Alvarez slipping as he scored in the shoot-out. VAR ruled it out for a supposed double touch on the ball.

“The referee said when Julian got to the penalty spot he touched the ball with his standing foot, but the ball did not move,” Simeone told reporters.

“But beyond that, which now just serves to argue about whether it should have counted or not, I am proud of my players, I am happy, truly.

“Why? Because we competed in an exemplary way. And yes, we could not beat Real Madrid in the Champions League, sure, we could not, but they had a really bad time (against us) again.”

The Atletico coach said he wanted to believe the officials got the penalty decision right.

“I’ve never seen a penalty where they’ve called the VAR, but well, they would have seen that he touched it, I want to believe, I want to believe they saw he touched it.”

The coach asked members of the media to raise their hand if they had seen a replay in which it was clear Alvarez had touched the ball twice.

“Raise your hand, anyone who saw Julian touch it twice, who is going to raise their hand? Nobody has raised their hand,” shouted Simeone.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said he felt the former Manchester City striker did touch the ball twice as he slipped.

“In the end it’s a lottery, I felt a little that he had touched it twice, that’s what I told the referee, it is clearly not easy to see, but it’s a bit of bad luck for them there,” Courtois told Movistar.

The Belgian goalkeeper criticised Atletico for complaining about the decision, but also appeared to take a swipe at his own club, who have been relentlessly attacking Spanish refereeing in recent weeks and claiming it is “rigged”.

“I think UEFA saw it clearly — I’m sick of this victimhood, always crying about stuff like this, the refs don’t want to help particular teams, not in Spain, not in Europe,” Courtois told reporters.

“They saw it clearly and that’s why they made that decision they saw it clearly with VAR, they have a lot of images and cameras.”

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti also believed it was the correct decision.

“They detected it, when we realised there was this doubt they had already detected it on VAR,” said Ancelotti. “I saw it, I think he touches it with his left foot, a second touch.”

Agencies