Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa has insisted his team can still turn the tie around and beat Bayern Munich in Germany, despite losing the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Bayern took control early when Luis Diaz and Harry Kane struck to put them 2-0 ahead. Kylian Mbappe pulled one back for Real midway through the second half, giving the home fans hope, but the visitors held on for a narrow victory.Speaking after the game, Arbeloa admitted the defeat was avoidable but refused to be downbeat.
“This is a defeat we perhaps could have avoided in the second half with a bit more luck,” he said. “We faced a great team, and we knew it. We made two mistakes, two turnovers, which we had discussed before the match and during halftime that we needed to avoid.“
Against this type of team, if you make these mistakes, you pay for them. It’s clear that we scored a goal that gave us hope, and the pity was not converting one of the chances we had.”Still, Arbeloa sounded full of belief ahead of the return leg.
“It won’t be easy, but if any team can win in Munich, it’s Real Madrid. We have shown that we can hurt them and score goals. We had plenty of chances to score another goal. We will learn a lot from what happened.
“We reached this stage practically without being able to prepare it on the pitch, which is not easy for a team like ours that isn’t as polished as Bayern, who have been with their coach for a long time.“With confidence in our players, we will go to Germany.
Anyone who doesn’t believe can stay in Madrid, because we are going all-in for the victory in Germany.”
The interim coach added that his squad has the personality to handle the challenge.“We’ll have days to prepare well, and that’s what we’ll focus on. Not the mental aspect.
I have players with a lot of personality; the first thing they said was that we’re going to win there.
They’re convinced, and so am I.“We’re Real Madrid; there’s no fear. We know the difficulty of the opponent, the context, and the stadium, but we’re going for it.”Real Madrid now travel to the Allianz Arena for the second leg knowing they must score at least twice to progress — and Arbeloa is convinced they have everything needed to pull off a famous comeback on Bayern’s home soil.