Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti explained his use of substitutions against Manchester City, revealing what he had told players on the eve of the game: ‘Those who finish the match are more important than those starting.’
Riyad Mahrez had put City up 1-0 (5-3 on aggregate) at minute 73 in the second leg of the Champions League semis in Madrid, but the Merengues scored twice through Rodrygo in the stoppages before Karim Benzema completed the job from the spot in extra time. The La Liga champions will face Liverpool in the Final on May 28. “It will be a great Final, we are happy to be there,” Ancelotti told Prime Video Italia.
“Not many believed we could make it, but the players believed in it more than anyone else.
“In this stadium, a spark is enough. PSG know something about it, Chelsea as well. It’s the magic of this stadium, the sense of belonging of these players, and their quality.”
Ancelotti reacted calmly to every Madrid goal, even the second one of the night for Rodrygo, who helped Madrid go to extra time.
Real Madrid vs. Man City: how Ancelotti reacted to Rodrygo’s second goal – image
“When there’s a game, that’s the only thing I am focused on, trying to do the best I can. It’s very satisfying to coach this team,” said Ancelotti.
The Madrid boss was highly praised for his use of substitutions by Prime Video’s pundits Clarence Seedorf, Patrice Evra and Claudio Marchisio. Ancelotti had introduced Rodrygo in the second half, same as Marco Asensio and Eduardo Camavinga. The French starlet replaced Luka Modric and was also pivotal to Madrid’s comeback.
“I preferred to change something. Kross, Casemiro and Modric played a great game, but energy is fundamental when the match is open and there are no more tactics,” explained the ex-Milan coach.
“I told the players yesterday that those who finish the game are more important than those starting and all of them [substitutes] did well. Jesus Vallejo has managed ten minutes this season, but he played five minutes tonight and won all headers.”
Ancelotti has become the first coach to reach the Champions League Final five times. He holds the record for the most victories in the competition, along with Zizou Zidane and Bob Paisley (three each).
Ancelotti looking to make history against Liverpool in Champions League Final
I can’t believe Ancelotti was available to sign and Juventus signed Allegri!!
Ancelotti trust Vinicius (21) , gives Rodrygo (21) a chance and Camavinga (19) is being transitioned to take a more influential role from next season. PhD Max and Arrivabene are building back older with 34 years young Di Maria and six years older then Dybala.
It’s not in Juve dna to hire a European winning coach like Ancellotti… When Maurizio Sarri came, he was sent packing. Andrea pirlo came same result but now Don Allegri is here and the old lady of Italy had found her soul-mate! the honeymoon had just begun! All frenzied in their romantically slow medieval football style.
If i am not wrong, agnelli prefer italian than foreign coaches to lead juve, but when he saw allergi he has already chosen the choice of life
Even de zerbi or dionisi are better than allergi
Imagine he pulled off a comeback like this against Liverpool who screwed him in 2005 . Liverpool goes up 3-0 at half and Madrid comes back to win
Ancelotti>> “Relax and enjoy the win! We are living in the matrix. The robots that designed the Matrix love Real Madrid. No matter how bad you play, you will win. The opposition will hit the post, the referee will help you.”
Allegry is the king of losers and talent destroyer , and we at juventus will have to suffer for another one or two years until our mediocre mgmt realized that , i ask myself how does agneli take descisions do they play Dice at juventus
Just how special was AC Milan in 06… Maldini, Kaka, Nesta, Inzaghi, Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf.. and of course Grande Carlo! 7 out of the 11 starters are legendary and the coach as well. Pulling so hard for RM and Ancelotti, forza Carlo you got this!
Alex
Two things why he would not coach Juve:
1) Real had to pay a fee to Everton to release Carlo, and that was almost 10M. Juve already pay salaries for early contract termination to Pirlo and had same experience with Allegri and Sarri.
2) Juve fans once said about Ancelotti that “a pig can not coach Juve”. That was the reason why he left in 1999/2000
Any other questions?
One of the best thing I enjoyed in the game was the Ref. He understood the importance of the game and didn’t give any team an excuse! In Italian football today, the refs are so terrible, the hand ball by man city in Italy would have been a penalty and ruined the fun of the game.. In Italian league, it’s like the players have to leave their hands at home before stepping into the pitch because any contact with the hand, doesn’t matter if it’s intentional or not or even touch other part of the body.. It’s an automatic PK and to see the ref last night is Italian is unimaginable!
Stan the Milanfan, spot on! In addition to the handball situation, Orsato let the play flow nicely and didn’t call a foul on every little contact. Diving was useless, as well, since he was never going to give penalties or free kicks from them. If Italian refs can call games like this, why don’t they do it in Serie A? I think the reason is the bloody moviola culture. Every single controversial call will be analysed a million times, so it’s safer to call as much as possible. If there’s contact, it’s a foul. As the result, players can count on getting the call their way if they feel the slightest contact. You could really see Inter suffer from this against Liverpool, for example, when there were numerous situations in which the Inter players expected a foul when they just should have kept on playing. It’s the media but also coaches like Gasperini and Mourinho who with their constant whining cause this. The refs should be cut some slack and let them call the game the way they want to.
Having said that, it’s not as bad as it used to be in the 00s when there were routinely 50-60 fouls per game. I think that generally Italian football has become better in terms of the flow of the game. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
Let’s not forget Real wanted Allegri but he turned them down. Juve tried Sarri. It didn’t work. They tried Pirlo it didn’t work. So they went back to a proven winner which is Allegri. He’s building a strong team. Let’s see what he does next year
This is funny because Ancelotti was at Juve and famously lost the league on the last day, where at the time, he had the curse of the second place. This Real team is not Juventus so let’s not kid ourselves. Also, Real rode their luck spectacularly yesterday and while I consider Ancelotti to be one of the best, he sure got the rub of the green. Incidents went his way.