Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was under no illusions as to the job he and his team would be required to do when the Champions League draw was announced on April 11th, throwing German treble-winning giants Bayern Munich squarely into the lap of the experienced Italian tactician.
Speaking to reporters before the Madridistas’ weekend game vs Almeria, the former Chelsea coach appreciated how tough it would be for the both teams although he stopped very short of declaring the Bavarians favorites for the trophy.
"The Champions League draw is good because we're in it,” the Italian said.
"We'll play against a difficult side, with individual and collective quality. Guardiola is one of the best coaches in the world and it is a side with a lot of experience.”
“It will be a difficult game for us, but also for them too. At this stage of the competition all sides are good sides. ”
"They might be the favorites for the competition but our objective is to win the cup and for that you have to play everyone. It won't be easy, but we are motivated. I don't think playing the second leg away is too important".
And on the Dortmund second leg that almost went disastrous:
“We played badly and luckily we got through because of our good game in the first leg. You have to think about knockout games over two legs."
"We have to consider the two games because we prepared the trap in the first tie and them in the second. There was too much criticising of the side."
"We don't have problems and we know what went wrong in Dortmund. We will work on it and make sure it doesn't happen again, but this game doesn't matter as we're now in the semi-finals."
"The key was the penalty that we missed and then after that we lost strength. This is what happened. We gave them two goals, but the side reacted well in the second half".
"The surprise of these four sides in Atlético. They are having a terrific season and it is an even semi-final. They play a similar system and it will be a very even semi-final".
