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Carlo Ancelotti’s time at Real Madrid could soon be over after embarrassing Champions League exit against Arsenal

April 17, 2025
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Carlo Ancelotti and Mikel Arteta
Carlo Ancelotti and Mikel Arteta (PC: X)

Bukayo Saka’s low-key celebrations after scoring the decisive goal in the 65th minute said it all really. Arsenal didn’t just win at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, they did so at a canter. Their eventual 5-1 aggregate win was thoroughly deserved, and now it’s surely on a matter of time before Carlo Ancelotti’s second innings with Real Madrid ends with dismissal. Tellingly, Vinicius Junior’s 67th minute goal, after a rare error from the otherwise immaculate William Saliba, was Real’s first shot on target in the game.

Talk had been of remontada [comeback] after Arsenal’s 3-0 first leg win, but it was again the visitors that settled quickly. In the 11th minute, the referee was called to the VAR screen to check Raul Asensio grabbing on to Mikel Merino during a set piece. After a lengthy delay, the penalty was taken, and Saka’s cheeky Panenka attempt into the corner was palmed away by Thibaut Courtois.

The other key first-half moment came on 22 minutes, when Kylian Mbappe went to ground in the box with Declan Rice’s arms around him. Penalty, said the referee. But when VAR sent him to the screen to check, he changed his mind, and decided that Mbappe had dived a little too easily.

“We weren’t able to change things around. Arsenal deserve it.” – Carlo Ancelotti

Arsenal always carried a threat on the counter, and though Real hogged two-thirds of the possession, Mikel Arteta’s side had twice as many shots on target. Gabriel Martinelli’s superb breakaway goal in the third minute of added-on time was no more than they deserved.

“The team tried,” said Ancelotti afterwards. “We weren’t able to change things around. Arsenal deserve it. There are two sides to football: the happy side that we experienced for several years, now it’s our turn to experience the sad side.”

As for his own fate, Ancelotti, who has won the competition an unprecedented five times, didn’t seem too bothered. “My future?” he said. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. We’ve come a fantastic way over the years. Let’s see what happens next year. I don’t know what’s going to happen and I don’t want to know. There is time for this.”

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