Real Madrid reach Copa del Rey final but so many errors will concern Ancelotti before Arsenal

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Jude Bellingham summed it up rather well.

“No more words for these kind of nights at the Bernabeu,” the midfielder wrote on Instagram after the game.

Real Madrid reached the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday night after a 5-4 win on aggregate against Real Sociedad, sealed in extra time of the second leg thanks to a 115th-minute header from Antonio Rudiger.

“I love this madness so much,” said Endrick, who scored Madrid’s first goal of the night, in the mixed zone after the match.

Dramatic, exhilarating and fun for the neutral? Yes.

Worrying for the Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti ahead of a Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal? Yes.

The win will have left a bittersweet taste for the Italian because of just how fragile Madrid looked in defence.

Madrid have been without Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao for much of the season, both ruled out with anterior cruciate ligament injuries, and David Alaba has only returned from an ACL injury of his own in the last couple of months. It has left Rudiger as Madrid’s only fit senior centre-back, and led to midfielders filling in at centre-back (Aurelien Tchouameni) and right-back (Federico Valverde) and the promotion of Raul Asencio from the academy to the first team.

Last night, Alaba started only his fourth match of the season, and he will want to forget it immediately having scored an own goal in normal time and deflected a shot by Mikel Oyarzabal which wrongfooted the Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin for Sociedad’s third goal. Sociedad have one of the worst scoring records in La Liga with 27 goals in 29 games, but they found the back of the net four times at the Bernabeu. They had four shots on target and their xG was 0.99.

Clearly there are defensive issues for Madrid to solve then.

Ander Barrenetxea made it 1-0 for Sociedad in the 18th minute after Asencio was pulled out of position by Oyarzabal and Lucaz Vazquez, the right-back, was caught in no man’s land. Ancelotti values the width that Vazquez provides in attack — and the fact that Vazquez playing right-back enables Valverde to return to his strongest position in central midfield — but he is often caught out in defensive situations. Ancelotti has a decision to make at right-back for the Arsenal games.

Barrenetxea made a comfortable run into the box and shot between the legs of the Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin. Madrid will hope that Thibaut Courtois is back training and fit to start the Champions League quarter-final at the Emirates on Tuesday.

After going behind there was a nervousness in the Bernabeu, among the fans and the players. Vazquez gestured in frustration, Tchouameni had words with Vinicius Junior and Alaba moved to the centre of the pitch to talk to Bellingham.

Endrick drew Madrid level after 30 minutes but in the second half, the problems mounted.

Shortly before Sociedad went 2-1 up, Lunin made a great save after some hapless Madrid defending at a corner. Vazquez and Asencio both went to challenge Martin Zubimendi and he still managed to get a shot away. The ball fell to Oyarzabal in acres of space at the far post and he shot wide.

Pablo Marin then dribbled past Eduardo Camavinga on the byline and his shot/pass back across goal flicked off the inside of Alaba’s leg and flew past Lunin.

(Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

It got worse for Camavinga, who had returned to left-back due to an injury to Ferland Mendy and Ancelotti wanting to rest Fran García. If it was an experiment by Ancelotti with Arsenal in mind — as Mendy will miss the first leg on Tuesday — then it was one that did not work out well.

With Camavinga out of position in the 80th minute, the former Madrid academy player Take Kubo raced into the box and linked up well with Oyarzabal. The latter’s shot flicked off Alaba again and the end result was the same, the ball finding the back of the net. The image of a distraught Alaba lying on the pitch said it all.

With ten minutes of normal time to play, Real Sociedad were 3-1 up and going through on aggregate (having lost the first leg 1-0). Their fans were going crazy at the Bernabeu, cheering and shouting “¡Sí, se puede! (“Yes, we can!”) and waving their scarves in the wind.

“At what point did I see us eliminated? Never,” said a calm Ancelotti in his post-match press conference. “At the Bernabeu anything can happen, especially in these types of matches and atmospheres. When we are behind in the scoreboard, we never give up.”

He was right. The madness of the game had only just begun.

The whistles continued to grow inside the ground, even for Vinicius. It was that, and a scolding from Ancelotti (“yes, that brought out his best version”, the Italian said later on), Madrid’s No 7 began to shine and he provided the assist for Bellingham to make it 3-2. Kylian Mbappe, who Ancelotti started the game on the bench in order to rest him, pointed towards the Brazilian forward when Bellingham scored, as if the goal had been his.

Then Tchouameni scored a header in the 90th minute to make it 3-3 on the night, and put Madrid 4-3 ahead on aggregate. There were big celebrations as the France midfielder peeled away with his compatriot Mbappe to celebrate. At this point it seemed like Madrid were into the final.

(Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

But even with only minutes to play, still the nervousness remained. Ancelotti almost entered the pitch during a heated conversation with Oyarzabal, and it took his son and assistant Davide to insist he return to the Madrid technical area.

The tension escalated to the stands and there was a loud argument near the press box between fans of both teams that had to be calmed down by stewards.

And suddenly Madrid’s ghosts returned in the 93rd minute, with further mistakes from repeat offenders. First it was an avoidable foul by Camavinga, then Lunin rushed out and failed to claim the Real Sociedad free-kick, and Alaba was beaten by Oyarzabal, whose perfect header made it 4-4 on aggregate.

“Four goals at home!” the cameras caught Mbappe appearing to say.

(Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Madrid regained their composure in extra-time, and with five minutes to play Rudiger met Arda Guler’s superb inswinging corner with an excellent header to seal victory and a place in the final.

Ancelotti had fitness concerns over Rudiger before the game so started the centre-back on the bench. But Madrid needed his solidity at the back, and for the second time in a month he was the hero in an attacking sense too. He scored the decisive penalty in the Champions League last 16 shootout against Atletico Madrid, and last night he scored the vital goal to beat Sociedad.

“It has been a match with a lot of goals, mistakes and also good things,” Ancelotti tried to reason afterwards. “The objective is achieved: we’re in the final again.”

Tchouameni was more self-critical: “We are happy because we are going to the final, but we can’t be happy with what we did today, we have to play better.”

A better team than Sociedad would have put the game out of sight, and there will be concerns in Madrid about all the defensive errors against an Arsenal side who have scored 55 times in 30 league matches this season. They are also brilliant from set pieces.

“Ups and downs, suffering, but we are there!” said one member of the coaching staff, speaking anonymously to protect relationships. There were words of caution too, though. “It’s the same as always, you can’t defend with six or seven players… There are structural problems, but this team competes.”

The Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has some injury concerns of his own, with Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu ruled out and Gabriel Magalhaes and Jurrien Timber being assessed after sustaining injuries in the win against Fulham on Wednesday night.

But Arteta and his staff will be encouraged by what they see when they watch back Madrid’s performance in defence last night.

(JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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