It's one more little secret of this incredible qualification of Real Madrid against Manchester City. Fallers of the big favorite of the competition, Carlo Ancelotti's men escaped at the end of the suspense this Wednesday evening during the terrible penalty shootout (1-1, 3-4 tab).
A session in which not all Madrilenians wanted to participate. When it came time to designate the shooters, two players from the White House did not want to take part: Federico Valverde and Eder Militao. A confidence made by Carlo Ancelotti's deputy and son, Davide, to Mundo Deportivo. Concerning the Brazilian defender, he warned that he would have to face his teammate and friend in the selection, Ederson, who would be better able to stop his shot.
“Rüdiger is a player with balls”
As for the Uruguayan midfielder, it was more a question of a lack of freshness. “He told me that he was very tired, and the truth was that he was dead, so we decided that Rüdiger would shoot,” confessed Davide Ancelotti. A choice that more than paid off since the German defender scored the winning shot on goal without trembling. Before him, only Luka Modric had missed his attempt on the Real side, among the five shooters previously chosen by the staff.
“When there were four or five minutes left to play, I started to think. Jude (Bellingham) is a shooter. Luka (Modric) is a shooter. Lucas (Vazquez) is a very good shooter. Nacho had experience and personality and in training we saw that he was determined to go. And Antonio (Rüdiger) is a player with balls,” concluded Davide Ancelotti. It goes to show that victory is sometimes decided in small details like these.