MADRID, 5 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Real Madrid coach, Carlo Ancelotti, has assured that the provocations towards Vinícius are “not” his “fault” and has invited them to “change the focus” elsewhere, in addition to stating that the referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández “has forgotten ” of the reiteration of the fouls to penalize the RCD Mallorca players in the defeat of the whites at the Estadi Mallorca Son Moix (1-0).
“Everything that has happened and is happening is not Vinícius’s fault. The only thing Vinícius wants to do is play football; then there is an atmosphere that provokes, rivals that press, that provoke, that he needs… This is what happens. I think he has to change the focus, we have to watch today’s game and see what has happened with him”, he declared at a press conference.
In addition, he regretted that the Canarian referee did not show more yellow cards for reiteration to the players of the vermilion team, who committed a total of 29 fouls throughout the match. “There is a referee who says when it is a foul or a card. What has been forgotten today is the repetition of the fouls, because they have not been very ugly fouls. In the first half we left the field with two yellow cards, Vinícius and Ceballos, and Mallorca with zero,” he said.
About the defeat, the Italian coach confessed that “it hurts a lot”, especially because it prevents them from cutting points with the leader FC Barcelona. “It was the game we expected: a tough, difficult game, with many fouls, with many interruptions. Small details have marked the game, because in general it has not been a bad game, especially in the second half. They have affected us the goal conceded a lot, because it was one of the few times that the rival has entered our area, and the penalty was missed”, he stressed.
“The game, as an idea, has not gone badly, but it has been an atypical game, with many interruptions. We have not had a cool head in the first half and this affects LaLiga. We have to think about the World Cup, which we arrived with great enthusiasm, with difficulties, but where we hope to handle it in the best way”, he pointed out. “I don’t know what is most important now. We have the World Cup and then we will fight again in LaLiga until the end. It hasn’t finished yet, what happened to us today can happen in every game,” he continued.
In another order of things, Ancelotti explained the last-minute loss of Thibaut Courtois and why he did not line up Toni Kroos or Luka Modric from the start. “Toni was touched after the game against Valencia and it was better to avoid problems. Luka had played a game less than 72 hours ago and he didn’t want to risk it. The team, on an energetic level, played a good game, especially in the second half Courtois had a problem with a shot in the warm-up and we have changed it. We’ll see tomorrow, today I didn’t allow him to play”, he said.
Lastly, he confirmed that he decided that Marco Asensio should be the one to take the penalty that Rajkovic finally saved in the 60th minute. “I have chosen me, because Benzema was not there and Modric was on the bench. Kroos was not there. I choose the pitchers,” he said. “The doubt was Asensio or Rodrygo, and we decided Rodrygo because it could be that Rodrygo was mentally affected by the penalty he missed in the World Cup,” he concluded.