Mikel Arteta reveals what Carlo Ancelotti told him after Arsenal beat Real Madrid

Arsenal have received the blessing of Carlo Ancelotti after getting past Real Madrid and into the semi-finals of the Champions League. The Gunners secured a 2-1 win at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night to progress to the last four of the competition for the first time since 2009 with an eye-catching 5-1 scoreline on aggregate.

Bukayo Saka saw his dinked penalty saved by Thibaut Courtois before Real had a penalty overturned by VAR after Declan Rice had been adjudged to have fouled Kylian Mbappe in the box. Saka made up for his miss with a cool chipped finish over Courtois and, although Vinicius Junior pulled a goal back after robbing William Saliba, it wasn’t even to prove a consolation for the home side.

Gabriel Martinelli raced clear on the break to seal victory for Arsenal in added time, sparking wild celebrations in the away end. The Gunners will face Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals before a potential final against Barcelona or Inter Milan.

There were some sour grapes from Real captain Lucas Vazquez, who claimed Arsenal “did almost nothing” in the first half and merely “came to defend”, but Mikel Arteta revealed a classy response from Ancelotti. He said: “Ancelotti told me that he hopes Arsenal win the Champions League.”

Ancelotti is the most successful manager in Champions League history, having won it five times, and he was magnanimous in defeat. “We’ve been happy so many times, but not today,” he said. “We need to manage this feeling as well as we did when the trophies were coming and we were thrilled.

“The truth is that Arsenal have been better than us. I’ve told the players to keep their heads high. We’ve done better than some teams this season and in football you have to suffer. It’s impossible to be invincible.”

Arteta was understandably buzzing with his side’s performance and progression. Asked what the result would do for his side, he replied: “The feeling that we have is our reality, basically. And in the feeling that I had before the game, when the players were transmitting and how prepared I could feel the team, that we are ready to compete against anybody. Now we have to continue to do that because I think we have some momentum now.”

Asked whether Arsenal could go all the way, he added: “It's certainly another massive step. Where we finished last year and the way we're doing it this year, the teams with their eyes on us and the competition, it's incredible. Big credit to [Madrid], it was my first time as a coach in that dugout and today I realised after three minutes in this stadium, anything is possible.

“They are specialists of creating such chaos and belief, and it's very difficult to understand really what's going on in the game and have certain certainty about how we controlled it. I think they showed a lot of maturity.”

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