Two Real Madrid players asked not to take penalties against Manchester City

Real Madrid booked their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday, overcoming reigning champions Manchester City across two legs. After 210 minutes, the teams could not be separated, which meant that penalties were required – Los Blancos came up trumps 4-3 in the end.

It was a rather peculiar penalty taker order that Real Madrid put together. Luka Modric and Jude Bellingham were nailed on, but it was surprising to see Lucas Vazquez, Nacho Fernandez and Antonio Rudiger be the other three. Davide Ancelotti, Carlo’s son and assistant manager, explained the decision, as per MD.

“With four or five minutes left, I started thinking about the order. Jude was taking one. Luka was taking one too. Lucas is a very good penalty taker. Nacho had experience and personality, and in training, we had seen that he was determined to step up… And Antonio is a player with balls.”

“Federico (Valverde) was going to be fifth, but he told me he was very tired, and he was really dead, so we decided to let Rudiger take it. It’s up to the coaching staff to decide the takers.”

The report also states that Eder Militao also asked not to take a penalty for Real Madrid. The reason he he gave was that Ederson, Man City’s goalkeeper and his international teammate, knows him too well, and could have guessed where he would shoot.