Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti acknowledged that his team have a low chance of reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League after their 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on Tuesday in the quarter-final first leg.

Declan Rice scored two brilliant free-kicks and Mikel Merino finished well in the second half to leave the 15-time European champions on the brink of elimination.

Madrid registered just three shots on target and failed to threaten regularly throughout the game.

"Normally this team raises their game towards the end of games," Ancelotti told reporters.

"It was disappointing, it was poor. We have to be critical of ourselves here and do everything we can next week to recover."

While the Italian did suggest that his team "were not bad throughout large stretches", he was under no illusions that their level of performance must be much better in the second leg next week.

Madrid do have some history on their side as well, with a formidable record of improbable comebacks at the Bernabeu.

They have, though, only once overturned a three-goal first-leg deficit, against Derby County in the 1975-76 European Cup after a 4-1 defeat at the Baseball Ground.

Ancelotti was realistic in his outlook, though he did warn Arsenal that the tie was not completely over yet.

"The possibilities [of qualifying] are quite low, but we have to try 100%. We have to do all we can, it's an opportunity to show a response to a poor game," he said.

"If you look at the game tonight, there is no possibility. But football changes. Nobody expected that Rice scores two goals from set-pieces.

"In football, everything can happen. We need to believe, we need to have trust because, sometimes, a lot of time in the Bernabeu, it happened."