MADRID, 14 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was hopeful about the physical problems that forced Karim Benzema, Ferland Mendy and Rodrygo Goes to leave the field in the 0-3 win against Mallorca, and although they still have to wait, he believes that “they don’t seem like very serious things”.
“We have to evaluate it in the next few days, but things don’t seem very serious. Rodrygo’s is a blow that has bothered him a lot, Mendy’s is an overload in the adductor, and Karim’s was in a jump and I don’t know he has felt well and has left. We have to wait until Wednesday to see if they can recover for Sunday”, Ancelotti pointed out at a press conference.
The Italian tried to take away the iron that there was rough play in the match and believes that Pablo Maffeo had “no intention of hurting” Vinicius in a first-half haul. “It was a very competitive game, especially in the first half, with a lot of contacts, but correct in the end,” he concluded.
“I think the referee was right in the end with his decisions, I think they were fair. When we got ahead of the game, to avoid problems, I took off Valverde who had a yellow card and Casemiro”, added the man from Reggiolo.
For the Madrid coach, the victory “doesn’t change anything” despite the fact that they put a ten-point lead over Sevilla. “We have an advantage and it’s good at this point in the season. The team is doing well physically and now we have to think about winning on Sunday and that’s it,” he warned, acknowledging the “spectacular job” being done by Antonio Pintus, physical trainer, and that makes his team have “important physical quality”.
Finally, despite the fact that the distance is wide, Ancelotti pulled from a private newspaper library to remember that in football nothing is won until the end. “How are you going to lose a Champions League final when you’re winning 3-0? It happened to me once and I hope it doesn’t happen again,” he said, referring to the defeat in 2005 in Istanbul against English Liverpool.