Carlo Ancelotti has warned his Real Madrid players that their Champions League quarter-final tie against Chelsea is far from over.
The holders will take a commanding 2-0 advantage to Stamford Bridge for next week’s second-leg contest after a comfortable night’s work at the Santiago Bernabeu in which Karim Benzema and substitute Marco Asensio struck either side of a red card for Ben Chilwell.
But despite all their dominance and hatful of chances against a toothless Chelsea team enduring a nightmare campaign, Madrid could not fully exploit their late numerical advantage and put the tie completely beyond their opponents before the return fixture in west London.
And Ancelotti - who scotched the rumours over a potential summer return to the Chelsea dugout on the eve of the first leg - was quick to caution the 14-time winners not to take their lead for granted.
“I’m not exhausted, I’m quite well,” said the former Blues boss. “I have tonnes of energy. But obviously we have to suffer, it’s not simple to be on the bench even when you’re winning 2-0.
“I’m happy but we have to be calm and there’s another 90 minutes. In football, anything can happen. We have got to manage it properly and try to repeat the match we had tonight.
“We are satisfied with the result, with the performance. We’re satisfied only for tonight. It’s not over yet. We know really well Chelsea will try to do everything next week.”
Ancelotti’s warning was echoed by Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who admitted that his side were annoyed at not having put the tie to bed already as he also revelled in a crucial save to deny Raheem Sterling an almost instant equaliser after Benzema had broken the deadlock in the first half.
“Every time you play a big knockout match you’re left with the sensation that you could have, should have, killed the tie off,” said the ex-Chelsea star.
“This is a good result but we’re bugged by the fact that we didn’t score a third or even a fourth goal. I hope we don’t regret not having added another when we play again next week.”
On his save from Sterling, Courtois added: “Had they scored, it could have given us a big blow mentally. I was really pleased with that stop.
“We’ll try to start well and powerfully next week. Our objective is to score first and to win again.”
