Two Real Madrid stars asked not to take penalties against Manchester City in a dramatic Champions League quarterfinal shoot out, as revealed by head coach Carlo Ancelotti and his assistant son Davide.
Los Blancos headed to extra time after a 3-3 tie in the Bernabeu and a 1-1 at the Etihad on Wednesday.
With neither team able to find a winner through an extra 30 minutes of football, the winner had to be decided from 12 yards out.
Thanks to Antonio Rudiger, Madrid advanced to the semifinals, where they will face Bayern Munich, by beating the Mancunians 4-3 on penalties.
With more attacking players like Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr. already taken off, the German center back and his defensive partner showed no fear in stepping up to the plate.
As revealed by Davide Ancelotti and his father Carlo post-match, however, at least two Madrid stars couldn’t say the same.
“When there were four or five minutes left I started to think. Jude [Bellingham] is a taker. Luka [Modric] is a pitcher. Lucas [Vazquez] is a very good pitcher. Nacho had experience and personality and in training we had seen that he was determined to go to one side… And Antonio is a player with balls” Davide Ancelotti explained, as per how they picked the five men for the mammoth task.
“Federico [Valverde] was going to be the fifth, but he told me that he was very tired, and he was actually dead, so we decided that Rudiger would take [a penalty]. The decision of the takers is up to the coaching staff.”
