Real Madrid will go into the second game with a dominating lead, but Carlo Ancelotti wanted to make sure his players stayed focused.
Real Madrid easily defeated Chelsea 2-0, but Carlo Ancelotti emphasized that they must be prepared to "battle and sacrifice" in the return match at Stamford Bridge.
After easily defeating Frank Lampard's underperforming team at the Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid appears to be on track to reach the Champions League semifinals for the third straight year.
The incumbent champions, who will travel to London for the rematch next week, finished off a dominant display with goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio either side of a red card for Ben Chilwell.
Ancelotti was unwavering in his belief that Los Blancos would have to put in a lot of effort to win the second leg despite the fact that Chelsea now has gone four games in a row without scoring in any competition.
We still have 90 minutes to play, it will be difficult, and we need to be ready, he told BT Sport. "I know football really well, and my players understand that.
We took advantage of this game and won 2-0, but the work isn't over yet. At Stamford Bridge, we must struggle and make sacrifices against a strong team like Chelsea with talented players. This is quite natural considering it is a Champions League quarterfinal.
"We are happy with the result; it was a good game, and we are now concentrating on the next."
Once Chelsea was down to 10 men, Luka Modric's close miss and Benzema's missed late opportunity kept the score low, but the Madrid manager did not feel his team had failed by failing to score another goal before the final whistle.
"They put a low block when we were up against 10 men, and it was difficult to find answers," he remarked.
"I think we expended a lot of energy trying to push high in the game, so towards the end, we weren't so fresh to attempt to find another goal, but the result and the performance were nice," said the player.
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