Real Madrid secured a very important victory on Saturday as they came from behind to defeat Villarreal 2-1 at La Ceramica. It is a result that sends them top of La Liga for the time being, although they can be overtaken by one of Barcelona or Atletico Madrid, who face off against each other on Sunday.
As per Diario AS, Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti expressed a lot of pride with his side’s performance against Villarreal, especially consider the effort that was made just three days ago against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
“The team was able to withstand the difficult moment, which was in the first part of both halves. Then little by little we started to handle the ball better and we looked for opportunities. Two goals came from Mbappe, and some counter-attacks that could have been better in the second half.
“I’m very proud. It was a trap game, because of everything that happened, because of the hours of rest and because of the strength of the opponent, who are a good team, but we watered down physically. The team ended up exhausted, it’s quite normal. It’s a victory that says a lot about this team and the resources of this squad.”
Ancelotti was very unhappy with the fact that the Villarreal match was played on Saturday, as it meant that his side had less than 72 hours between the two fixtures. He made it clear to La Liga that this cannot happen again.
“The explanation is that this team has something special, character, commitment, they can’t always do it, sometimes I even get angry with them. We must thank these players for their enormous effort since January 3. Even more so today. It’s the last time we’re going to play before 72 hours. We are never going to do it again. We have asked La Liga twice to change the schedule and nothing has happened. This is the last time we played a game without 72 hours of rest. We won’t play if it happens again.”
