Ancelotti: “These aren’t the best kinds of games for Tchouaméni”

Following Real Madrid’s 3-1 win over Espanyol on Saturday afternoon, Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media in a press conference and analysed the game as so: “We feel good about the performance. We didn’t start well, but their goal didn’t affect us and we were able to recover well and then control the second half well. We had more movement up front than we usually do and that helped us create more chances. We wanted more wide players today because of the way Espanyol play.”

Ancelotti on Rodrygo and Militão having the same number of league goals

Ancelotti was stumped by one question in the press conference, when it was put to him that Militão’s goal today means he now has the same number of league goals as Rodrygo this season, with four. He paused for a moment and replied: “It means Militão could be a great striker, though I don’t know if Rodrygo could be a great defender! It’s a slightly strange stat, but Rodrygo has also helped us a lot in other senses. I do ask a lot of him defensively.”

Ancelotti on Tchouaméni

Aurélien Tchouaméni got the start in this game and was the player who lost the ball for the opening goal. Analysing his performance, Ancelotti said: “I think he did quite well, even if he did lose a couple of balls. His speciality is defensive, so these aren’t the best kinds of games for him when we need to manage the ball more. He won’t get his best version in these of games.”

Ancelotti on Vinícius’ eight yellow cards

When the stat about Vinícius having the second-most yellow cards of all forward players in LaLiga, with eight, was put to the coach, he replied: “Many of them were for protesting, but today I think his attitude was very good. He didn’t protest and he needs to continue like this. I asked the referee for an explanation for today’s yellow and he explained it to me, saying it was because he held on to the opponent persistently. I think he gets too many yellows for the number of fouls he himself suffers.”

Ancelotti on the Liverpool second leg

Although this was the post-match press conference for the Espanyol game, the coach was also asked to look ahead to the Liverpool second leg, after Real Madrid won the first match 5-2 at Anfield. He said: “We had a similar experience against Chelsea last year and that second leg turned out to be very difficult. We have the advantage so we’re the favourites. We’ll need to play with the same attitude as the first game and play at our top level again, but we do need to understand that we have the lead. We have a disadvantage in the league and the Copa del Rey, while we have a small lead in our Champions League tie, but the Champions League is the most difficult competition in the world.”