Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti explained why he brought off his midfielder Jude Bellingham … [+] during Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing of RB Salzburg in the Champions League.
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Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti explained why he brought off his midfielder Jude Bellingham during Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing of RB Salzburg in the Champions League’s league phase, and later quipped that getting Manchester City “out of the way” wouldn’t be a bad idea.
The elite competition’s defending champion made easy work of its Austrian foe in the Bernabeu, and Ancelotti told Movistar that his team “achieved the objective”, which was to “win and try to play a good game”.
With Madrid netting 14 goals in its last three outings, the Italian said that “obviously, there is no doubt about the quality of what is up front”.
“We tried to fix the rest, because the efficiency we have up front is incredible. The other things have to be fixed. Sometimes we do it well and sometimes less so. But we’re on a good run,” Ancelotti claimed.
Conceded at a time when the points were already in the bag as Madrid was 5-0 up, Ancelotti insisted he is “not angry about the goal” from Salzburg.
“At the back we did well. [Antonio] Rudiger was very good today, [David] Alaba is back, [Raul] Asencio is fine. It is a collective problem. It is the key to this year. If we can have collective commitment we will be successful, and we will be able to take advantage of the quality up front”.
Bellingham being brought off not long past the hour mark was a worrying sight for Madrid fans, but Ancelotti explained that the Englishman – who was fantastic with two assists for Rodrygo across 11 first half minutes – had a “back problem” that was “nothing special”.
“I had the possibility of taking minutes away from someone and I took them away from Bellingham and [Kylian] Mbappe to be fresher,” Ancelotti concluded.
By that Ancelotti must have been nodding towards Saturday’s La Liga clash away at Real Valladolid in a late night affair.
Madrid is two points clear at the Spanish top flight summit, but might even be trailing crosstown foes and title race rivals Atletico Madrid by a point come kick off given that Diego Simeone’s men could have beaten Villarreal in an earlier afternoon match.
Back to the UCL, Ancelotti said at his postmatch press conference that it “would be good news to get City out of the way now” after Pep Guardiola’s side lost 4-2 at Paris Saint-Germain and is now on the brink of a stunning league phase KO.
Ancelotti explained that this is “because for me it’s one of the candidates to win the Champions League, again”. Yet that doesn’t seem likely unless former FC Barcelona boss Guardiola can drastically turn the Mancunians’ fortunes round.
