“He whistled, we stopped!”: Carlo Ancelotti reacts to Bayern Munich’s disallowed goal in dramatic Champions League win

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·9 May 2024

“He whistled, we stopped!”: Carlo Ancelotti reacts to Bayern Munich’s disallowed goal in dramatic Champions League win

Carlo Ancelotti can look forward to a Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley after navigating his Real Madrid side past Bayern Munich.

After an entertaining 2-2 draw in the first leg, Real Madrid went behind to a spectacular Alphonso Davies strike early in the second half last night.

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It looked like Los Blancos would rue missed chances but a late brace by substitute, Joselu salvaged the unlikeliest of victories in added time.

However, there was time for just one more moment of drama.

With seconds remaining, the ball was swept towards Leroy Sane in the Real Madrid box. He was beaten to the header by Ferland Mendy and as Matthijs de Ligt struck the rebound into the net, the referee blew for an incorrect offside.

Cue confusion, despair and jubilation in equal measure.

It was enough to seal Real Madrid’s victory and after the game, Head Coach, Ancelotti spoke to the media.

“Magical”

Ancelotti has steered Real Madrid 13 points clear of second-place Girona in La Liga and can now look forward to a trip to Wembley for the Champions League final. He praised the mentality of his players and described the moment as “Magical”:

“It’s happened again. The players never stopped believing. It’s something magical. We played well. It was difficult. We had good control of the match and then we had the strength not to lose our heads. We have to thank the fans and the club and to the players, because they have had a season that nobody expected. Neither did I. Reaching the final is a success, whatever happens. If I think about the days to get to the final, we’ll have a great time. We will celebrate La Liga. I ask to celebrate to go to Cibeles. Happiness infects the atmosphere and the players”

They complain? So we complain!

Bayern Munich Head Coach, Thomas Tuchel, was, understandably, critical of the referee after the game but Ancelotti said that the controversies evened out over the two legs.

Ancelotti highlighted a disallowed goal for Real Madrid mid-way through the second half after it was deemed that Kimmich was fouled in the build-up:

“The last play is quite clear. It might have been offside. And we stopped. He’s a top-level referee. The assistant raises the flag, the referee whistles and we stopped,” Ancelotti began. “It may not have been offside, but what is certain is that he whistled. Bayern complained about the offside? Ok, so we complain about the cancelled goal of Nacho… because Kimmich dived. They complain about that goal but not the other one for us that they ruled out, because Kimmich throws himself against Nacho [Fernandez]. It should have been a goal.”

Praise for “Captain” Perez

Ancelotti praised Los Blancos president Florentino Perez:

“There is a captain here and his name is Florentino Perez. The rest of us are sailors. He has been able to create this wonderful generation of players and hopefully we can win another Champions League. It has not been an easy season,” he said. “There has been a lot of talk about the injuries of [Thibaut] Courtois, [Eder] Militao or [David] Alaba, but we also lost Vinicius [Junior], [Jude] Bellingham, [Aurelien] Tchouameni for a long time… The team took advantage of the injury problems to demonstrate the great value of this squad. We never complained. We overcame it.”

Now there is just one last hurdle for Real Madrid to overcome in their pursuit of a record 15th Champions League trophy: Borussia Dortmund.

GGFN | Oscar O’Mara