Carlo Ancelotti made shock last-second change to his penalty takers as Real Madrid player 'wasn't confident'

Carlo Ancelotti made a surprise last-second change to his penalty takers due to one Real Madrid player 'not feeling confident' against Atletico Madrid.

Real progressed the quarter-finals via a 4-2 win on penalties, with four of their five players scoring their spot kicks for Carlo Ancelotti's side.

Julian Alvarez had his successful penalty disallowed by VAR for Atletico after he was deemed to have kicked the ball with both feet, before Marcos Llorente's effort hit the crossbar.

Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham both hit near-perfect penalties for Real, before Federico Valverde also found the net.

Lucas Vasquez's penalty was saved by Jan Oblak, before Antonio Rudiger's effort squeezed in past the Slovenian goalkeeper to give Real the victory.

But Rudiger wasn't on Real's initial penalty takers list.

Ancelotti has since confirmed that 18-year-old striker Endrick was due to take Real's final spot kick, but he switched out in favour of Rudiger just before the shootout.

The Italian stated: "Endrick was supposed to shoot the final penalty, but we didn't see him very confident. We chose Rudiger, he's more cold.

The Brazil forward entered the action during the second half of extra time, replacing Vinicius Junior in what appeared to be a surprise change.

Vinicius missed a penalty in the second half of normal time when he blazed his effort over the bar, but the Ballon d'Or runner-up likely would have stepped up again in the shootout had he been on the pitch.

RUDIGER SENDS REAL MADRID INTO QUARTER FINALS 💥

Complete DRAMA in the Madrid derby as Real Madrid win the penalty shootout over Atletico 😱

📺 Watch the Champions League LIVE on @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/Xt789sTh3J

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 12, 2025

That wasn't to be in the end, but the situation worked out well for Real.

Los Blancos will now take on Arsenal over two legs beginning next month for the chance to contest a Champions League semi-final.

The Gunners defeated PSV 9-3 on aggregate, with Mikel Arteta's side having demolished the Dutch giants 7-1 away from home in the first leg.

PSV did salvage some pride with a battling 2-2 draw at the Emirates on Wednesday, though Arsenal did play a rotated side.

Oleksandr Zinchenko and Declan Rice twice gave Arsenal the lead, but the reigning Eredivisie champions equalised through former Tottenham winger Ivan Perisic and Morocco international Couhaib Driouech.