Ancelotti: “This was a practical and intelligent performance”

Carlo Ancelotti has won at the Camp Nou for the first time in his coaching career and the Italian was very pleased with Real Madrid’s performance as they triumphed 2-1 in El Clásico. Analysing the victory over Barcelona, the coach said: “I’m happy. It wasn’t an easy game, given how well Barcelona played. It was a practical and intelligent performance from us. We were good defensively, although we could have played out from the back better in the first half. But, we showed our quality on the counter attack. I think we’re a solid team and we can compete. Rodrygo and Vinícius are doing good defensive work. I think the whole squad is playing well. Everyone wants to play and that is good. We’ve played a great team today and we suffered, but we showed we could suffer together. It’s a positive if you don’t lose control even when you don’t have the ball.”

Discussing the spectacular opening goal from David Alaba, Ancelotti admitted that he was a little surprised to see the defender in that position. He said: “Normally Alaba isn’t in that kind of area when he plays centre-back. Shooting is one of his qualities and he had space and it came off well.”

Ancelotti also provided updates on the injury issues suffered by Thibaut Courtois and Fede Valverde, saying: “Courtois had knee pain and it seemed serious, but then he felt fine. At that moment, we only had one more substitution slot left and we did think about it. But, in the end, he felt fine. As for Fede Valverde, I think it’s just a knock, but we’ll evaluate it tomorrow.”