CHELSEA could receive an opposition boost ahead of their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday after former Blues Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Rudiger led Real Madrid to victory over Manchester City in their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night.
Following their 4-3 defeat on penalties, City manager Pep Guardiola revealed Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne asked to go off at the Ethiad Stadium.
Haaland was substituted at the end of 90 minutes after De Bruyne had scored to make it 1-1 and 4-4 on aggregate.
De Bruyne was taken off in the 112th minute, along with Manuel Akanji who also said he couldn’t continue.
Haaland and De Bruyne would have taken penalties in the shootout. Bernardo Silva had a penalty to make it 2-0 saved by Real goalkeeper Andriy Lunin who also kept out former Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic’s effort.
Former Chelsea defender Rudiger stepped up to beat Ederson and send ex-Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti’s side into a semi-final against Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich.
“Erling and Kevin asked me to go out. They could not continue, like Manu,” Guardiola said. “The game we were playing they were amazing, [I’m not] a big fan to make a lot of substitutions, but Kevin, Erling and Manu asked me to go out, they could not continue.”
While Mauricio Pochettino will have had four full days to prepare his side for the Wembley showdown, City will be licking their physical and psychological wounds two days out from the tie as they saw their double-treble chances ended by Champions League kingpins Madrid.
Guardiola took the result on the chin.
“Johan Cruyff said luck doesn’t exist, I agree with him,” Guardiola said.
“Losing like this hurts. We feel bad but we did everything. We have no regrets about what we have done.
“We played exceptional in all departments but unfortunately we did not win.
“You hope to create more and concede less because it helps you to win but we didn’t convert the chances we had.
“To beat Real Madrid you have to be at your best. We were at our best but it was not enough.”
