Real Madrid took the victory and Anoeta’s three points against Real Sociedad in an exercise of solvency, in attack and defense: 0-2 with goals from Vinicius and Jovic and another three points for the whites, who add 39 out of 48 possible and that stand out at the head of LaLiga, eight points above Sevilla, nine above Betis, ten from Atleti and Real Sociedad and 16 from Barcelona, nothing less. However, after the match Carlo Ancelotti worked before the media to reduce the euphoria and remember that it had only been a good day (Atlético and Barcelona had lost, as well as Real Sociedad itself), but everything can change in a moment.
“We are good, but the League continues. We have to look forward to the next matches. We have to continue. We are doing well, it was a difficult game, on a difficult field against a strong opponent. And we did well. We are solid, we have continuity in the results. It’s a good day, but the League continues. There are teams that compete a lot, that fight a lot, winning is difficult. EIt’s too early to think about the title, I hope no one does. Each game is a fight, we have to be smart in the games that are going to come soon. If I read a headline that says “Champion victory”, it will seem exaggerated, It is a victory for a team that is fighting to win, which is doing well. I know football, in three days everything can change “explained the Italian.
He knows what Carletto is talking about, because in his first stage with Real Madrid there is a trauma that now makes you be cautious and nip the triumphalism that you may perceive in the bud. It was in the 2014-15 season, the second for him after that 2013-14 season that ended with a Copa del Rey and the Lisbon Champions League against Atleti. Madrid started by winning the European Super Cup, although they lost Spain’s to Atleti and went through some turbulence, but ended up establishing a team at 4-4-2, with Isco and James on the inside and Cristiano and Benzema at the top, and started a streak of 22 victories, a record for the white club and one of the best brands in European football (the record is held by Ajax, with 26).
Until matchday 17 of the League, when it was Madrid’s turn to visit Valencia. That day everything went wrong: he went ahead, but saw how they traced him; Bale missed clear goals and was substituted, after which he ran to complain to his agent, which in turn transferred those complaints to the club; and it was the beginning of the end of that season for Madrid. Before that duel, he was leading with a four-point advantage over Barcelona and seven over Atlético. He maintained those four points with respect to the culésbecause they fell in Anoeta on the same day, but the sensations changed radically from that day.
Ancelotti, from Ferguson to ceased
So much so that a team that was launched for a hypothetical triplet that the previous year had narrowly escaped it ended up blurred, without any high-level title (it only won the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, both for merits achieved during the course above) and seeing how Barcelona, who brushed the dismissal of Luis Enrique after that Anoeta game, closed the course with that long-awaited triplet, after beating Juventus in Berlin. Ancelotti, who was on his way to settle as a Ferguson in Madrid, was dismissed and Madrid pulled Rafa Benítez, an error that he would correct months later by replacing him with Zidane, Ancelotti’s second in 2013-14 and a coach with a profile very similar to that of the Italian. All that happened on matchday 17 of that 2014-15 academic year at Mestalla, the same match that will be held next weekend.
Of course, Ancelotti knows that the euphoria that we live today will be nothing compared to what can come if Madrid manages to prevail in the derby next Sunday against Atleti; if that happens, the white advantage over the main rival for the domestic championship, with the permission of Sevilla, Betis and Real Sociedad and given the notorious absence of Barcelona in the fight, it will be 13 points, with Atleti pending to recover a match, which could cut down to ten. While, Carletto diminishes the triumphalism of the white ship. Because the devil knows more for old than for devil, and Ancelotti has been in this business for a long time.