It took a long time for Carlo Ancelotti to appear in the Benito Villamarín press room. La Liga slips away from Madrid with Barcelona trailing nine points and a three-game winless run, with two draws against Atlético and Betis in La Liga and a loss to Barcelona in the Copa semifinal. “La Liga It’s very difficult. It is very complicated, but we have no doubt that we will fight until the end”, the Madrid coach told Movistar. “We knew we had a difficult game. We got the ball out well from behind, looking for the pass between the lines, but we lacked a bit of efficiency. It is that in reality in the last three games we have scored only one goal from set pieces (against Atlético) and it is evident that we have to be more effective”, added the Madrid coach. “The recipe is to be more forceful. It was an open match, we wanted to do it that way, but we lacked efficiency, except in the last 30 minutes, where we took control of the game. We lack efficiency, we dribble too many, too many walls in small spaces and that has punished us in recent games”, added the Italian coach. “Asensio has not played because I have put Rodrygo,” he said.
0
Bravo, Juan Miranda (Abner, min. 86), Pezzella, Luiz Felipe, Sabaly, Rodri, Ayoze Pérez (Luiz Henrique, min. 70), Guido Rodríguez, William Carvalho (Guardado, min. 79), Aitor Ruibal (Joaquín, min. 86) and Borja Iglesias (Willian José, min. 71)
0
Courtois, Eder Militao, Camavinga (Nacho, min. 63), Rüdiger, Lucas Vázquez (Dani Carvajal, min. 59), Aurelien Tchouameni (Dani Ceballos, min. 63), Federico Valverde, Vinicius Junior, Kroos (Álvaro Rodríguez, min. 87), Benzema and Rodrygo
goals
Referee Cesar Soto Degree
Yellow cards Camavinga (min. 25), William Carvalho (min. 46), Sabaly (min. 50), Borja Iglesias (min. 51), Eder Militao (min. 58) and Vinicius Junior (min. 83)
“I am affected more than angry. A team of this quality cannot score a goal in three games. That affects me and the players. We have quality to score goals. That’s where the problem lies”, clarified Madrid’s top technical manager. “The planning of the squad is normal. We have scored five goals in the Liverpool field with these same players”, said Ancelotti. “We didn’t choose the best solution in the last minutes of the game, we lack that, sometimes we dribble when we shouldn’t. We have to fix that. It is a collective problem”, concluded the Madrid coach.
“It was a fair tie. Courtois has made two great saves and I am very happy with the performance of players like Aitor Ruibal or Rodri. We had the merit of not leaving spaces for Madrid. That’s why they didn’t reach us as much. But then we look for the rival area. We don’t change our style to play against Madrid,” said Manuel Pellegrini, the Betis coach. “Since I started training at Betis, I feel very proud of my players. There is no team A or team B. Now we have to see how we recover and put ourselves in order to fight against Manchester United”, added the coach. “Very happy to complete 100 games with Betis and to do it against a rival like Madrid. I really liked the personality of my team”, stressed the Chilean coach.
“We created chances, but we missed the goal. We have played with a new formation, a 4-2-3-1 and we have done very well, but if there are no goals it is a bit sad because you don’t win”, said Rodrygo. “We are in good shape physically and mentally, but the ball doesn’t go in,” he clarified.
“They are one of the fights that are enjoyed. Militâo is a very noble guy, who competes very well. We had a few laughs and everything. The tie is fantastic for us. We have had moments to arrive clearly and the save that Courtois has made me, enormous. That is why he earns what he earns ”, clarified Borja Iglesias, the Betis striker. “We are in a good moment. We compete with anyone and we are going to fight as far as we can for the Champions League”, added the Verdiblanco striker.
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