Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media briefly after Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Celta Vigo. After the match, he was asked whether there were any disputes between Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jr due to Bellingham’s “reaction” to Vinicius. Ancelotti replied: “I haven’t seen the action you’re talking about. But if it happened, it means he has balls, character and I think it’s fine. Honestly, I didn’t notice the play, I’ll watch it. But if he reacted… don’t worry, after the game they were talking, laughing. They don’t have any problems.”
Ancelotti on the game
“It was a competitive game, a hard fight, and difficult. The credit we have is that we always competed well, right to the end. We could have played better, yes, but the group was committed and knew how to suffer, because Celta also competed well, with intensity. We took three important points thanks to a fantastic pass from Modric. Something normal for him, because of his enormous quality. Luka always contributes, whether he’s a starter or coming off the bench. He has such great quality that he always adds to the game.”
Ancelotti on whether he has had enough time to work on Tchouameni’s positioning
“It’s not that we have to work on it a lot. As long as he gets in between the centre-backs, that’s fine. The only thing is that, if we lose the ball, he would get forward and the centre-backs would be open. And that’s where we suffered. We have to fix it; calm down, we can do it. But we’re not going to play like this all the time. We might do it in some games, to have a low-pressure start, but when the opponent plays in a different formation, we can play with the same pivot as always.”
Ancelotti on Bellingham’s positioning
“Bellingham’s position has changed: the idea was to bring him in from the second line on the right wing, because Celta had been suffering with balls to the far post, conceding. We tried with Jude in this position and I liked it a lot. Regarding Tchouameni: he played, when we had the ball, between the two centre-backs. There we had a problem with balance in the first half because, if with the ball there were three, without it he had to go forward… and we made mistakes. I didn’t explain it well.”
Ancelotti on whether he is worried about conceding so many shots
“Obviously. We need to improve in this area. We lacked balance; in the second half, with a little more attention, we could have avoided the goal.”
Ancelotti on the importance of this victory
“Rhythm, above all rhythm. And intensity. In the first half we were not well balanced and, despite Mbappé’s great goal, we suffered; but in the second half we improved defensively. When they equalised, the changes gave new energy. It was a very important victory.”
Ancelotti on completing 200 league games with Real Madrid
“What a success, eh! I’m very happy. The question is: How many of these 200 have we not suffered? Not one. There have been 200 suffered. Many with success, few with sadness. Today we are happy. After the break, it is always difficult to play these games, especially if they are away from home. We did it in San Sebastian and today, too.”