The coach of the “Royal Club” summed up the disastrous El Clasico for his team.
Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti commented on the crushing defeat by Barcelona in the central match 11th round of the Spanish La Liga of the 2024/25 season.
In the match, which took place on October 26 at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Hansi Flick's team destroyed the “creamy ones” with a score of 0:4.
“At 0-0 it was an even game and we played with intensity in the first half. We could have scored but we didn't. We had chances to go ahead. After they scored we lost the momentum. Then we had space at 0-2, we had to take risks in one-on-one defence and they created some chances on the counter-attack. We looked good in the first half and we needed to continue that.
We need to keep working. We can’t cross anything out yet. The team fought for 60 minutes, but we will have to forget the last 30 minutes. It was something special because we wanted to get the game back. The season is long, we can’t give up. We need to learn from this defeat. Now we need to overcome the gap because the season is long and there are many games ahead. We can do better, and I am sure we can.
We couldn’t take advantage of their high pressing. Mbappe was close to scoring, sometimes he was offside, but that’s normal with such an opponent’s defense. He had three or four chances when he could have scored. Then something happened to Flick’s assistant. The assistant was not a gentleman after celebrating in front of our bench. I told Flick this and he agreed,” Real Madrid's official website quotes Ancelotti as saying.
It should be noted that the Royal Club's Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin spent the entire match on the pitch. It was previously reported that Madrid's main goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was injured.
Following the victory in El Clasico, Barcelona continues to lead La Liga, now having 30 points. The Catalans have increased their lead over second-placed Real Madrid to 6 points.
In the next round of the Spanish championship, the “blue garnets” will host Espanyol on November 3, and the “blancos” will meet Valencia away the day before.