Ancelotti: “Playing on a pitch like this isn’t football, it’s another sport”

Real Madrid found it really tough to play on the poor quality Estadio Príncipe Felipe on Tuesday night, but they ultimately got the job done against Cacereño and won 1-0 thanks to a Rodrygo goal. Carlo Ancelotti was simply happy to progress to the next round of the competition, analysing the game as so: “Rodrygo’s goal was a great piece of play, but the rest of the game was even and hard fought. They did really well. We knew it would be like this, but I’m happy that we got the job done. We’re not used to these kinds of games. It was impossible to play. You couldn’t play short passes, so we played longer balls and I think we adapted well. For me, this isn’t football. It’s another sport and that’s nice because smaller teams can compete with the bigger teams. That’s nice for fans, but fans do also want to watch football.”

Ancelotti on Hazard’s performance

There weren’t many more questions in the post-game press conference, but Ancelotti was asked about Eden Hazard. He didn’t want to criticise the Belgian and said: “He did his job during his time on the pitch, but it’s hard to analyse individual players given these circumstances.”

Ancelotti on Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey hopes

Asked why Real Madrid fans should believe that this is the year they can finally win the Copa del Rey again, Ancelotti said: “The quality of the team is the reason. We have a squad to compete in every competition.”