Ancelotti: "Asensio was as good as Benzema and Vinícius"

Carlo Ancelotti has analysed Real Madrid’s 4-1 victory over Valencia, expressing his delight with the performances of his players. Asked in his press conference about the controversial Casemiro penalty that brought about the first goal, the coach went on the evaluate the game as a whole, saying: “I haven’t seen a replay of that. From where I was, I thought it was quite clear. Even though we opened the scoring with that penalty, we had a complete performance. We weren’t great at the start and they had some counters, but we improved and we created many chances.”

Ancelotti was then asked about the performances of goalscorers Karim Benzema and Vinícius, as well as Marco Asensio. He said: "Vinícius has returned in good form. Even if he didn’t dribble much tonight, he was there to score goals. He scored centre-forward type goals. Then, Karim Benzema was as good as ever. Asensio played well too, at the same level as Benzema and Vinícius. When he is playing well he’ll get to play the full 90 minutes. The front three were good, but not guaranteed to start every game as I also have to think about players like Rodrygo, who has always done well when chosen.”

Ancelotti on the vaccine status of his squad

Up next for Real Madrid is the Supercopa in Saudi Arabia, where it’s necessary to have the vaccine in order to enter the country. On this and the semi-final against Barcelona, he said: “As far as I know, all my players are vaccinated. This is the first trophy of the season and every team wants to win it. A Clásico will always be a Clásico. Even though we might theoretically be favourites, we then need to put that into practice on the pitch. Every match starts 0-0.”