Carlo Ancelotti believes Real Madrid will reach the Champions League final if they play at a similar level to their performance against Valencia on Saturday.
Los Blancos were forced to come back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu, effectively extinguishing their hopes of a first La Liga title since 2012, but the Coach saw enough from his side to suggest that they were well-equipped to eliminate Juventus next week.
“The result wasn’t good, but our performance was very good,” he said after the game.
“We had many chances to score, we fought until the end and deserved to win, but this isn’t enough. On Wednesday, we’ll be fine.
“The response [from my players] was very good. They all struggled and worked hard together.
“We scored two goals, hit the frame of the goal three times and missed a penalty. The result hurts, but it can happen sometimes.
“[Winning La Liga] will now be much more difficult [than it was before], but there are still two matches left and we must try to win them both.
“We’re all disappointed with the result, given that we played the match with confidence.
“All my players gave all they could and know that playing the same way can get them to the [Champions League] final in Berlin.
“[Toni Kroos] took a blow to his hamstring. We’ll evaluate him tomorrow, but we’re optimistic. The same goes with [Karim] Benzema. [Kroos] has a small annoyance, but it happens.
“[Iker] Casillas played well, as did the team. We paid for some little mistakes.
“Our marking wasn’t good with [Valencia’s] set-pieces. The first goal came from a very quick ball into the box, and we suffered a bit by having to come back [from two down].
“[Raphael Varane] went down with fever the night before. He was tired and didn’t pass fit.
“[The draw] is [a stimulus for Wednesday against Juventus in the Champions League], but we also acknowledge the little mistakes which are costing us very dearly. We need to be confident.
“[On making two changes at half-time], we were trailing 2-0, they had many attacking players on the pitch and the only way we could’ve attacked more was by putting on two more attacking full-backs.”
