December 22, 2024
Saturday evening, Carlo Ancelotti addressed the press at the Santiago Bernabéu following the victory over Girona in La Liga matchday 24, describing it as their best performance yet.
He emphasized the team’s comprehensive display both defensively and offensively, attributing their success to a humble approach against a pragmatic Girona side.
“It was our best performance. A really complete display in every sense: defensively and going forward,” Ancelloti said, as reported by Real Madrid.
“It was a humble approach given the demands placed on us by the problems we had, and the crisis only boosted the team’s defensive efforts.
“The strength of this team is how their commitment and attitude rise to match the demands of the game. Quality is the most important thing but if you can combine it with the right attitude and commitment, like we did today, you get a top-level performance.”
“It is a big statement in the fight for La Liga because Girona are a great team who hadn’t lost away from home.”
Jude Bellingham scored two while Vinicius scored one and assisted twice, as Real Madrid outplayed Girona 4-0 yesterday.
Reacting to this performance, Ancelloti said: “There are things about the way he plays that remind me of Zidane, it’s his extraordinary quality on the ball.
“Zidane may have been even better technically but Bellingham combines it with how he gets into the box. There are few players in the world who can match his movement for his first goal.”
On Vinicius, the 64-year-old added: “He put in a top performance. He’s absolutely superb at this level. He’s the best in the world when he plays like that. Bellingham is the second best, Rodrygo the third, Kroos the fourth, Camavinga, Valverde… It was easy to be in the Real Madrid dugout today.”
The Los Blancos’ victory over Girona yesterday was marred with injury setbacks to Bellingham who couldn’t finish the match due to an injury, and Rudiger who was ruled out pre-match.
“Bellingham picked up a sprained ankle, they’ll assess him tomorrow. I hope we can have him fit for Tuesday,” Carlo said.
“There are games he hasn’t been involved in and others have come in and contributed a lot, like Brahim and Joselu. We broke records for injuries today with four centre-backs out.”
However, Bellingham’s injury hasn’t been confirmed yet, Antonio Rudiger has been invariably ruled out of the club’s Tuesday clash.
“It was the knock he got against Getafe. It bruised up and caused a bit of a tear. He tried his best yesterday but he was struggling with the change of direction. He won’t play on Tuesday but we’ve got Nacho back. I hope he’ll be available again soon,” Carlo Ancelloti reacted to the German’s availability.
Real Madrid will return to action on Tuesday, February 13th, where they’ll face RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 encounter with the German club.
© Copyrights Sixsports. All Rights Reserved.