Jude Bellingham summed it up rather well.

“No more words for these kinds of nights at the Bernabeu,” the midfielder wrote on Instagram after the game.

Real Madrid reached the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday night after a 5-4 win on aggregate against Real Sociedad, sealed in extra time of the second leg thanks to a 115th-minute header from Antonio Rudiger.

“I love this madness so much,” Endrick, who scored Madrid’s first goal of the night, told journalists in the mixed zone after the match.

Dramatic, exhilarating and fun for the neutral? Yes.

Worrying for the Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti before a Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal? Yes.

The win will have left a bittersweet taste for the Italian because of Madrid’s fragility in defence.

Madrid have been without Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao for much of the season, both ruled out with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, and David Alaba has only returned from an ACL rupture of his own in the last couple of months. It has left Rudiger as Madrid’s only fit senior centre-back and led to midfielders deputising in defence (Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde) and Raul Asencio’s promotion from the ‘B’ team, Real Madrid Castilla, to the senior side.

Last night, Alaba started only his fourth match of the season, but he will want to forget it immediately. He scored an own goal before later deflecting Mikel Oyarzabal’s shot to wrong-foot Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, putting Real Sociedad 3-1 up on the night. With 27 goals in 29 games, Real Sociedad have one of the worst scoring records in La Liga, but they found the back of the net four times at the Bernabeu.

They only had four shots on target, with a total expected goals (xG) of 0.99, but clearly, there are defensive issues for Madrid to solve.

Ander Barrenetxea made it 1-0 to Real Sociedad in the 16th minute after Asencio was pulled out of position by Oyarzabal and Lucaz Vazquez, the right-back, was caught in no man’s land. Ancelotti values the width Vazquez provides in attack — and the fact Vazquez playing right-back enables Valverde to return to his strongest position in central midfield — but he is often caught out in defensive situations. Ancelotti has a decision to make at right-back for the Arsenal games.

Barrenetxea made a comfortable run into the box and shot between the legs of Lunin. Madrid will hope that their No 1, Thibaut Courtois, is back training and fit to start the first leg against Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday.

After going behind, there was a nervousness in the Bernabeu among the fans and the players. Vazquez gestured in frustration, Tchouameni had words with Vinicius Junior and Alaba moved to the centre of the pitch to talk to Bellingham.

Endrick drew Madrid level after 30 minutes with a delightful lob, but in the second half, the problems mounted.

Shortly before Real Sociedad went 2-1 up, Lunin made a great save after some hapless Madrid defending at a corner. Vazquez and Asencio went to challenge Martin Zubimendi and he still managed to get a shot away. The ball fell to Oyarzabal in acres of space at the far post and he shot wide.

Pablo Marin then dribbled past Eduardo Camavinga on the byline and his shot/pass back across goal flicked off the inside of Alaba’s leg and past Lunin.

It got worse for Camavinga, who had returned to left-back due to Ferland Mendy’s injury and Ancelotti resting Fran Garcia. If it was an experiment by Ancelotti with Arsenal in mind — as Mendy will miss the first leg on Tuesday — it did not work out well.

With Camavinga out of position in the 80th minute, the former Madrid player Takefusa Kubo raced into the box and linked up well with Oyarzabal, whose shot again flicked off Alaba into the back of the net. The image of a distraught Alaba lying on the pitch said it all.

With 10 minutes of normal time to play, Real Sociedad were 3-1 up and leading on aggregate (having lost the first leg 1-0). Their fans were going crazy at the Bernabeu, cheering and shouting “¡Si, se puede! (‘Yes, we can!’) and waving their scarves in the wind.

“At what point did I see us eliminated? Never,” said a calm Ancelotti in his post-match press conference. “At the Bernabeu anything can happen, especially in these matches and atmospheres. When we are behind in the scoreboard, we never give up.”

He was right. The madness of the game had only just begun.

The whistles continued to grow inside the ground, even for Vinicius Jr. Whether it was the hostile atmosphere or a scolding from Ancelotti (“Yes, that brought out his best version,” the Italian said later on), Madrid’s No 7 began to shine and he provided the assist for Bellingham to make it 3-2. Kylian Mbappe, who came on as a substitute in the 66th minute, pointed towards the Brazil forward when Bellingham scored, as if the goal had been his.

Then Tchouameni scored a header in the 86th minute to make it 3-3 on the night, putting Madrid 4-3 ahead on aggregate. There were big celebrations as the France midfielder peeled away with his compatriot Mbappe to celebrate. It seemed Madrid were into the final.

But even with only minutes to play, the nervousness remained. Ancelotti almost entered the pitch during a heated conversation with Oyarzabal and it took his son and assistant Davide to insist he return to the Madrid technical area.

The tension escalated to the stands, leading stewards to calm down a loud argument near the press box between fans of both teams.

And suddenly, Madrid’s ghosts returned in the 93rd minute, with further mistakes from repeat offenders. First, it was an avoidable foul by Camavinga, then Lunin rushed out and failed to claim the Real Sociedad free kick and Alaba was beaten by Oyarzabal, whose perfect header made it 4-4 on aggregate.

“Four goals at home!” the cameras caught Mbappe appearing to say.

Madrid regained their composure in extra time and, as a penalty shootout loomed, Rudiger met Arda Guler’s superb inswinging corner with an excellent header to seal a place in the final.

Ancelotti had fitness concerns over Rudiger, so the centre-back started on the bench, but Madrid needed his solidity at the back. For the second time in a month, he was the hero in an attacking sense, too. He scored the decisive penalty in the Champions League round-of-16 shootout against Atletico Madrid, and last night, he scored the winning goal.

“It has been a match with goals, mistakes and also good things,” Ancelotti tried to reason afterwards. “The objective is achieved: we’re in the final again.”

Tchouameni was more self-critical: “We are happy because we are going to the final, but we can’t be happy with what we did today, we have to play better.”

A better team than Real Sociedad would have put the game out of sight and there will be concerns in Madrid about all the defensive errors against an Arsenal side who have scored 55 times in 30 league matches this season. They will also back themselves to capitalise on any Real Madrid weakness at set pieces.

“Ups and downs, suffering, but we are there!” said one member of Madrid’s coaching staff, speaking anonymously to protect relationships. There were words of caution, too. “It’s the same as always, you can’t defend with six or seven players. There are structural problems, but this team competes.”

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has his own injury concerns, with Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu ruled out and Gabriel and Jurrien Timber being assessed after sustaining injuries in the win against Fulham on Wednesday night.

But Arteta and his staff will be encouraged by what they see when they watch back Madrid’s performance in defence last night.

(Top photo: Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images)