Ancelotti: “I haven’t watched the match Real Madrid lost to Alcoyano last season”

Real Madrid launch their Copa del Rey campaign against Alcoyano on Wednesday, the same opponent they lost to at this stage last year. Discussing the game in his pre-match press conference, Carlo Ancelotti admitted he hadn’t watched the defeat Real Madrid suffered in Alcoy last year. He explained: “I haven’t watched that match, but I know what happened. The players have told me. It’s an open wound, that loss against Alcoyano. The players, even better than I, know what happened last year and what can’t happen this time.”

The Italian insisted that he and his players will take this game and this competition seriously. After saying they were still on holiday for the Getafe loss, he said: “We’re back from holiday now. We’re taking this game seriously, as it’s a one-off game on the road, so it’s a different kind of game. You can be eliminated with one bad game. This is an important competition and our objective is to win it. We’ll need quality, with our quality theoretically superior to that of our opponents, but we’ll also need concentration, to win aerial duels and to be good at set pieces. I’ll put out the best team possible.”

The coach did reveal, though, that several stars won’t play at the Estadio El Collao. Giving an extensive injury update, he said: “Vinícius will be back from the COVID-19 protocol tomorrow, but I don’t think he’ll travel tomorrow. Gareth Bale won’t be available because of some physical issues, but he might make the Valencia game or the Supercopa in Saudi Arabia. Then, some other players like Benzema, Modrić, Mendy have had physical issues after the Getafe game and won’t play. Neither will Courtois because I want to give minutes to Andriy Lunin. I want to be quite clear about this when I say that there is only one player I am gifting minutes to and that’s Lunin, because he deserves it. I think he’ll have a good game, plus he knows that team and pitch well from last year. Apart from that, I will put out the best team possible, keeping in mind that there are some absences.”

Ancelotti on the latest Mbappé rumours

There were some interesting quotes this Tuesday from football agent Giovanni Branchini, who claimed Real Madrid have made a fresh offer of 50m euros for Kylian Mbappé. Asked about this in his press conference, Ancelotti responded: “I don’t think it’s fair to speak about players who aren’t here. I have a good relationship with Branchini, who is a friend, but I don’t want to speak about this.”

Ancelotti on potential exits

Another transfer market question saw the coach asked if he thinks any players will leave Real Madrid this window. But, he doesn’t think so. He said: “Nobody has asked [to leave] and everyone is training well. I don’t think we’ll have exits in the month of January.´

Ancelotti on facing low blocks

After the defeat against Getafe, a team who sat deep like Cádiz before them, Ancelotti was asked how he plans to find solutions for these types of matches. He said: “We struggle more in these types of games and we have to try new things. We need to find the spaces by moving better without the ball. We can be more direct too, but we need players who think about breaking the lines.”