Home is where the heart is as far as tonight’s Champions League quarter-finals first legs are concerned.
And while one tie remains in the balance, it is hard to see the other being clawed back.
Whatever the SBOTOP Champions League 2023 betting odds tell us, it is rarely wise to bet against a club which has fallen in love with this tournament ever since its formation in the 1950s and has gone on to triumph a record 14 times to date.
Nights like this show exactly why as the holders were well worth their 2-0 victory in the Bernabeu.
Real Madrid and Chelsea have squared up against each other in the knockout stages for the third season in a row, with Real winning only one out of their seven matches against Chelsea in Europe.
This was win number two and it was rarely in doubt either.
Karim Benzema’s tap-in – his 90th goal in the competition – gave Ancelotti the ideal start against his former club.
Just before the hour, Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell was shown a red card for fouling Rodrygo and from then on there was only one winner as the hosts netted what could be a decisive second goal when Marco Asensio rifled the ball through a crowd of players.
Chelsea had their moments with their former goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois denying on-loan Atletico man Joao Felix and Raheem Sterling an equaliser.
Yet Los Blancos were in control as the highest-scoring team in La Liga showed their potency in Europe – they have now scored in each of their last 31 home knockout games in this competition.
No coach has won as many Champions Leagues and only Ancelotti has claimed all of the top five European leagues, yet I read in the build-up to this tie that there is a reluctance among some to place him among truly elite managers; that few see him as a grand philosopher, thinker or revolutionary.
How mistaken they are.
If Madrid win the Copa del Rey, the final of which they reached last week, it would complete the set: from January last year to May this year, and they will have won the league, the cup, the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup, the Club World Cup and the Champions League.
He has also won 35 Champions League games with Real Madrid (in 47 matches), more than any other manager with the club in the competition.
I cannot see a current manager elsewhere in football who can compete with that.
As for Chelsea, with interim boss Lampard at the helm, this was a battling display but there is much work for the new manager to do when he is appointed this summer.
If Real have a distinct edge, the other tie, an all-Italian affair, is more delicately poised after the first leg.
Yes it’s less than a fortnight since AC Milan rocked Napoli with a 4-0 thrashing in Serie A, but with such a healthy lead at the top of the standings, that match appeared far more important for the soon-to-be deposed champions to make a point.
This was always going to be close on a stage the Rossoneri really crave – they had lost only one of nine previous all-Italian match-ups in a European competition.
True enough, the home team won again as Ismael Bennacer’s first-half strike from the edge of the box, following good work from Braham Diaz, earned them a slender advantage.
But they may live to rue the fact Simon Kjaer’s header bounced off the underside of the crossbar in the closing stages of the first half.
They were unable to add to their Champions League 2023 highlights in the closing stages, despite playing against 10 men for the final quarter of an hour after Frank Zambo Anguissa had been dismissed.
Luciano Spalletti insisted his runaway leaders were ready for Milan, even accounting for injuries to key forward players, including top scorer Victor Osimhen.
If they get him back for the second leg, the highest scorers in the competition this season this term (on 25 level with Manchester City) could well turn this around.
For now, though, Milan have the advantage.
They are unbeaten in each of their six Champions League games against Italian opponents (won three, drawn three), keeping the clean sheet five times in the process.
It was a night for home comforts in the Champions League.
●●●
CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR MORE FOOTBALL STORIES & ODDS
Stay updated with everything sports and betting.
Follow us on social Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
