Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.

“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”

When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.

But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.

“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.

Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.

“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.

“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”

-Reuters

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Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.

Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.

Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.

Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.

They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.

“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.

“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”

A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.

But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.

“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”

PENALTY MISS

Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.

Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.

Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.

It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.

After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.

That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.

Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.

Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.

William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.

Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.

-Reuters

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Barcelona thumped visitors Borussia Dortmund 4-0 in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday after Robert Lewandowski scored twice against his old club to earn the Catalans a sizeable lead ahead of next week’s return visit to Germany.

Undefeated since late December, treble-chasing Barca predictably dominated the opening stages and grabbed the lead with Raphinha’s strike in the 25th minute. A string of saves from Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel frustrated Barca for the remainder of the first half.

Barcelona emerged more determined after the break and it took them only three minutes to score the second goal, with Raphinha assisting Lewandowski, who nodded home from close range.

The Polish striker extended their lead in the 66th minute from just inside the box while Lamine Yamal wrapped up another demolition job by Barcelona in the 77th.

“I think we played very well but we are not thinking about the semi-finals yet, we must keep the same focus and mentality that have brought us here so far,” Lewandowski told Movistar Plus.

“It doesn’t matter where we play and what game it is, we always want to play our football with the same commitment.

“Our mindset is always going for the win and that is how we will play at Dortmund. We have to go there and play as well as we did today or even better.”

Barcelona have enjoyed a superb 23-game unbeaten run across all competitions. They are the only team in Europe’s top five leagues yet to lose in 2025 and are still in the running to win three titles.

They lead LaLiga, four points ahead of Real Madrid whom they face in the Copa del Rey final on April 26.

Hansi Flick’s Barca have now scored 36 goals in 11 games in the Champions League, and 145 in 48 competitive matches, thanks to their inspired attacking trident formed by Lewandowski, Yamal and Raphinha.

On Wednesday, Kobel denied Lewandowski and Yamal from close range but there was little he could do when Raphinha fired over the goal-line in the 26th minute.

After the break, Yamal made an impressive run from the right wing before lifting a cross towards the back post for Raphinha to head back across goal, leaving an unmarked Lewandowski to nod over the line from centimetres out.

Lewandowski extended their lead with a bullet strike while Yamal rounded off the beating with a tidy finish from a quick counter.

“It’s a very tough defeat,” Dortmund coach Niko Kovac told Movistar Plus.

“We expected more but we have to be fair, Barca are a great team. Today they took advantage of all the gifts we gave them, they are really effective in attack.”

-Reuters

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