Carlo Ancelotti admitted relief as Real Madrid reached the final of the Supercopa de Espana after a penalty shootout semifinal win against Valencia in Riyadh.
It ended 1-1 after regular time and then after extra time, with Karim Benzema's strike being cancelled out by Samuel Lino. Both goals came shortly either side of half time.
Jose Gaya's miss in the shootout proved the decisive penalty at the end.
Ancelotti later said, "It was a tough and hard-fought match. There are no matches at this level that aren't tough. We made a clear mistake at the start of the second half, and we made it difficult for ourselves. The first half was fine, and so was the end of the game".
"The opposition defended well and created problems for us on the counterattack. We're pleased. We need to improve gradually, but we did a good job. We weren't great at several points in the game, but we stayed in it.
“We wanted to reach the final. We do well in the finals and we'll see what happens. This is a different situation to last year. We're going to fight flat out to win the Super Cup".
"On Sunday we'll have a competitive defence. Carvajal and Mendy have shown that they've got over their injuries. We just have to evaluate Lucas Vázquez and Militão."
He added: "I want to thank them for the atmosphere. It felt like we were playing at home and we really enjoyed it. We all celebrated the victory together and now we're going for the final."
