One of the major points of debate in the Spanish capital all season has been whether Real Madrid could start all of their star-studded attacking quartet, namely Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes, without sacrificing the balance of the side. While it has proven an elusive objective all season, against Manchester City across two legs, Carlo Ancelotti finally saw what he wanted.
During his post-match press conference, Ancelotti explained that their 3-1 victory over City was ‘the best version of Real Madrid’ all season. Speaking in the mix zone after the game, he would go out of his way to highlight the defensive work of his front four.
“First. We qualified. Second. We defended well. Third, we played good football,” he told Guillem Balague of CBS Sports Golazo.
“I’m really pleased with this [the defensive work-rate]. With all this quality in front, it is difficult to think that we could defend so well. But the sacrifice of the four was fantastic in these two games, and this is the key. Because when you defend well, in front, we are really dangerous, because we have so much quality.”
Carlo Ancelotti reacts to Real Madrid beating Man City and progressing to the Champions League Round of 16 ⚪ pic.twitter.com/eZLKBMBPh1
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) February 19, 2025
At various points this season, Ancelotti has mentioned ‘collective commitment’ without the ball, and Ancelotti was asked how he convinced them to buy into that.
“Simply I called them. All together. And I said to them, to be more focused defensively. And they did. With the ball. With Mbappe, Bellingham, Vini. With the ball from Raul [Asencio]. So we have a lot of options. We can be really dangerous in transition, we can play good balls, we can play one against one on the sides, a lot of speed with Mbappe, a lot of possibilities to attack.”
Their successive victories over Pep Guardiola’s side were the first landmark wins of the season for Real Madrid, and they will be hoping to kick on and progress from it. Against a denatured City side, they looked plenty strong, but will be face more difficulty in all likelihood against Bayer Leverkusen or Atetico Madrid in the next round.
