Carlo Ancelotti believes the high-press system favoured by Liverpool worked in Real Madrid's favour as the holders sealed a safe passage through to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Karim Benzema scored the only goal of Wednesday's last-16 second leg to complete a 6-2 aggregate win for Madrid, who have eliminated Liverpool from the competition for three seasons running, which includes last season's final.
The damage was ultimately done in the reverse fixture at Anfield three weeks ago when Madrid scored five goals in the space of 46 minutes to recover from two goals down and take control of the tie.
Liverpool had a number of chances at Santiago Bernabeu, but Madrid also tested Alisson five times before Benzema tapped in to inflict a joint-heaviest defeat on the Reds in a two-legged European tie.
Toni Kroos and Luka Modric helped control play for the hosts, and Ancelotti puts that down to Liverpool's playing style, which has brought plenty of success and trophies to Anfield in recent years but has not been as efficient this season.
"Pressing up high for them has cost them because Modric and Kroos manage very well in these types of matches," Ancelotti told Movistar+.
"They are not afraid and are able to get the ball out from the back. It has cost [Liverpool] in this sense."
Madrid are through to the quarter-finals for a 19th time in the Champions League era – once more than LaLiga rivals Barcelona, and behind only Bundesliga heavyweights Bayern Munich (21 times).
Ancelotti decided against making any substitutions until after Benzema's 78th-minute breakthrough, despite having a trip to Barca on Sunday, with the Italian explaining he was wary of Liverpool finding a route back into the tie.
"The team was fine. There's no need to change for the sake of changing," he said. "I wanted to keep the substitutions to stop the game if we had problems at the end.
"I liked the team. On a psychological level, in a game like this when you have a three-goal lead, you can lower your level... but we didn't lower it today."
Madrid had a late penalty appeal rejected following a VAR review in added time after a goal-bound shot hit Kostas Tsimikas on the arm, but Ancelotti had no complaints over the decision.
Asked about his conversation with Klopp at the end of the game, Ancelotti said: "We agreed it wasn't a handball. We talked about yesterday's penalty against Leipzig in the [Manchester City] game.
"You have to be careful with decisions like that because it's not football. I don't think anyone noticed it was a penalty, not even [Pep] Guardiola."
Ancelotti will take charge of a Champions League quarter-final for a 13th time, taking him ahead of Manchester United great Alex Ferguson and level with Guardiola (13) for the joint-most of any manager.
Haiti, Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras qualify for Concacaf Gold Cup
Haiti, Canada, Costa Rica and Honduras all qualified for the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup following the results of their matches on Saturday in the 2022-23 Concacaf Nations League.
Haiti defeated Montserrat 4-0 to claim the top spot in Group B of League B to clinch their Gold Cup place.
Canada topped Curacao 2-0 to secure at least a second-place finish in Group C of League A, thus qualifying them for the Gold Cup. Even though they were not in action, the Canada win also assured Honduras a berth in this summer’s Gold Cup as well.
Costa Rica will also play in the Gold Cup again after rallying late from a 1-0 deficit to claim a 2-1 win in Martinique in Group B of League A.
Haiti, Canada, Costa Rica and Honduras join the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama and Jamaica as teams that have punched their ticket to this summer’s tournament.
The winners and second-place finishers from the League A groups and the winners of each group in League B group will directly for the Gold Cup.
The second-place teams from the League B groups and the third-place teams from League A will join the winners of each League C group in the Gold Cup Prelims.
Southgate hails ruthless Saka after stunning England strike
Gareth Southgate praised the ruthlessness of Bukayo Saka after his starring role in England's 2-0 win over Ukraine.
England made it six points from two Euro 2024 qualifiers with a routine win at Wembley on Sunday.
Saka, a leading light in Arsenal's challenge for the Premier League title, supplied the assist for Harry Kane's opener in the 37th minute.
He then made it 2-0 three minutes later by bending a magnificent long-range strike into the top-right corner, his eighth goal for the Three Lions.
"It is a top-level finish [from Saka]," Southgate told Channel 4.
"That is the ruthless part he has added to his game in the last 18 months or so. There were times you weren't sure he was going to finish, but now he has that confidence in front of goal."
England were in control throughout, with Ukraine never looking likely to produce a comeback in a game where they did not manage a shot on target.
The command England enjoyed naturally delighted Southgate, who also had plaudits for James Maddison, the Leicester City playmaker creating five chances in an impressive showing.
"The risk is that when you have control of the game you have the odd sloppy pass, but the application throughout was excellent," added Southgate.
"We have broken down a lot of barriers over a period of time. We still had that question mark over some of the bigger teams.
"We are starting to win those games now but there is still lots of room for improvement.
"To back up the Italy result was important, but there is still room to grow."
"We are always trying to think about now and what is next. We did that with James Maddison today. We thought it was a good game to see him.
"He was defensively very solid. It was nice to get Ivan Toney on the pitch as well. We will always look at people, but we have to qualify and we can't take that for granted."
Juventus midfielder Kostic out of Serbia squad with Achilles injury
Juventus midfielder Filip Kostic has been ruled out of Serbia's Euro 2024 qualifier against Montenegro with an Achilles injury.
The 30-year-old played a full part in Friday's 2-0 win over Lithuania and set up Dusan Tadic's early opener.
But Kostic will not be available against Montenegro at Podgorica City Stadium on Monday, having returned to his club side for treatment.
"It's bad news for us," Serbia head coach Dragan Stojkovic said at Sunday's pre-match press conference. "He left the team because he has Achilles tendinitis.
"There is no need to take any risks with him. The decision was to return to the club. I'm always sorry when a player gets injured – there's nothing worse for a coach."
Juventus will hope to have Kostic available for a busy run of fixtures when they return to action later this week.
Massimiliano Allegri's side have nine games in April across three competitions, starting with Saturday's Serie A meeting with Hellas Verona at the Allianz Stadium.
Kostic has played in 38 of Juve's 39 matches this season – only Danilo has featured as regularly – and has a team-high 11 assists to go with his three goals.
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