Real Madrid is already preparing the clásico where they rush their few options to the league (nine points behind Barcelona) and Carlo Ancelotti went through the press room more pending to clarify his continuity in Madrid than the clásico itself. In an environment full of rumors about his departure next summer to the Brazilian team, the coach wanted to forcefully deny it: “I would stay at this club for the rest of my life, but it is impossible even if I wanted to. It is a decision of the club, which It will take at the end of the season. My thought is that I want to continue and I hope it will be like that. I enjoy every day that the club wants me here. If you want it for three months, I’ll enjoy it; if it’s three years, too. What I’m clear about is I’ll be grateful to him for the rest of my life.” Ancelotti has a contract for one more season, until June 2024.
Madrid has won the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup this season but there is an unwritten rule with Florentino Pérez that ensures that if Madrid does not win the League, the Cup or the Champions League, the coach does not follow. It already happened to Carlo Ancelotti in 2015. The coach prefers not to think about it: “The rules also change and I am convinced that we are going to win something, so the issue is over.”
Asked which of the three titles he sees as closest to winning, he commented: “The data shows that we have a disadvantage in the Cup and in the League and where we don’t have it is in the Champions League. Anything can happen. We want to cut the disadvantage in the League.”
Ancelotti does not want to say that he thinks that a defeat tomorrow means a final goodbye to the League: “I don’t know. We didn’t think about that. We thought about winning. And if we don’t win, we’ll think about it.”
And he continued: “Tomorrow the rival is a lion, not a cat. If you think it’s a cat, you think it’s a party, and it won’t be a party. I always have fear, it doesn’t leave you: the two hours before the game are the most difficult for me”.
The Real Madrid coach spoke well of Barcelona: “I see a very solid Barça, who fit in very little, with an important collective commitment. They won last time (in the Cup at the Bernabéu) although they suffered a little more than normal” .
About his approach at the Camp Nou Ancelotti stated: “Tomorrow we will play offensively, but without risks”. De Benzema said that “it’s fine”. The Frenchman limped off Wednesday’s game against Liverpool. Regarding the duel between Vinícius and Araujo, he commented: “Yes, the truth is that Vinícius has had more difficulty, but Vinícius is always Vinícius. His mobility can help him get the best out of it. And we can put him on the right… No I’m kidding. But mobility is important. He’ll play on the left, but with more mobility.”
Ancelotti is confident in the momentum of the team: “Since January 22 the team has done very well and the data confirm it. We are in a good moment, mentally too. But also technically and tactically we have improved a lot. We are stronger at the back. Some games didn’t go well, but we can play well until the end”.
Finally, he commented on the draw for the Champions League that has matched him with Chelsea in the quarterfinals and with the winner of Manchester City-Bayern in a hypothetical semifinal: “Last year the rounds at home gave us a lot (in these both would be away I don’t know if it’s a disadvantage. But I think it doesn’t change much. I don’t think about this, the Bernabéu will help us in the first leg”.
