The coach of Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, has revealed the player to be excluded for the upcoming match and … [+]
Carlo Ancelotti, head of Real Madrid, censured the tactics employed by his team during their defeat to cross-city rivals Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey last 16 on Thursday, highlighting ‘unwarranted’ maneuvers involving Vinicius Jr., while also disclosing the player who will be excluded from the squad for the upcoming fixture.
Real Madrid’s aspirations for a domestic treble were shattered when they succumbed 4-2 to Diego Simeone’s side at the Metropolitano.
Despite securing a 5-3 victory in extra time against Atleti just a week earlier and subsequently progressing to the Spanish Super Cup final, where they triumphed over another longstanding rival, FC Barcelona, it was Atletico who emerged victorious after another exhilarating 120-minute encounter.
Ancelotti, during a post-match interview, refused to attribute the loss to “accumulated fatigue” when questioned about it.
“I cannot say, I am not sure,” responded Ancelotti responded. “It’s not the issue.”
“We engaged in a complete, evenly contested match against a formidable opponent. Although we left with a positive feeling, we are not content. We made every effort. It was a commendable performance from us and also from Atleti,” he added.
Despite only managing to score two goals against Atletico on this occasion compared to five in the previous encounter, Ancelotti rebuffed the notion that a shortage of goals was decisive.
“Well, we scored twice and hit the post twice. We even had a disallowed goal. We did everything we could in the attacking third.”
When evaluating what was lacking, Ancelotti criticized his players for not exerting “a bit more control when the game was evenly poised”.
“We leveled the score on two occasions and we should not have taken undue risks. [We should have had] more composure,” he emphasized.
“There are instances during matches when it is unnecessary to force the issue,” Ancelotti remarked during a pre-match press conference when elaborating on the subject.
“We have young individuals with exceptional talent, who exert themselves. [However] in certain game situations, it is unnecessary to force the issue.”
“Our defeat is a result of us taking unwarranted risks in a particular sequence of play,” Ancelotti specified in reference to Vinicius, who was at fault for Antoine Griezmann’s extra-time goal. “We paid the price for that.”
Prior to that, in the mixed zone, Ancelotti confirmed that he will start Kepa instead of Andriy Lunin in the La Liga encounter with Almeria on Sunday.
However, during his press conference, Ancelotti declined to provide “individual analysis” when asked to address Lunin’s subpar performance, which included an error leading to Atleti’s 2-1 lead.
“We could have handled the game better when it was level, we did not need to press the play so vigorously and yet we did. Our youth was the deciding factor,” concluded the manager.
