Real Madrid stumbled to a third consecutive winless outing against Real Betis in La Liga on Sunday night, moving further away from league leaders Barcelona in the process.
Real Madrid stumbled to a third consecutive winless outing against Real Betis in La Liga on Sunday night, moving further away from league leaders Barcelona in the process.
Real Madrid created chances aplenty and had a xG of 1.21 on the night, yet, could not find the back of the net. Karim Benzema did open the scoring with a perfect free-kick but the goal was disallowed for a handball by Antonio Rudiger.
Real Madrid just have not clicked since their day out at Anfield and there are now doubts creeping in about the team’s form.
Carlo Ancelotti addressed this, and other specific points of the game when he talked to the press at Benito Villamarin. Madrid Universal brings you the snippets from the Italian’s media session.
On the performance at Benito Villamarin: "It was an open game and that’s how we wanted it to be. We lacked effectiveness up front. In the end, in the last thirty minutes, we created more chances, but at the moment we lack efficiency. We make one more pass than we should, too many one-twos."
On the missed chances: "Today we could’ve scored because we had three or four clear chances, but in the last three games the statistic is self-evident: we’ve only scored one goal."
On the defence: "We’re very good at the back, but there is a lack of balance. Militão and Rüdiger were outstanding in defence. That’s how I see the tie."
On the Merengues’ recent struggles: "We try to dribble when we shouldn’t or pass when we should be shooting at goal. It’s a collective problem of individual decisions."
On Real Madrid’s scarcity of goals: "I’m upset more than angry. It’s not normal that a team with this much quality didn’t score more than one goal in the last three games. The players are also disappointed because we’ve got the quality to score and we’ve always done it. We need to be more clinical."
On the La Liga title race: "I don’t think the league is over. It’s a big lead, nine points, but we have to fight until the end. I don’t know what will happen, but we’ve still got a lot of games to play. One thing that is evident is that we have to do better."
On the mentality of the squad: "The make-up of the squad appears normal to me. This squad scored five goals at Anfield."
On not using Marco Asensio: "I had Rodrygo, Karim and Vini Jr on. Rodrygo, I thought, was playing well and Karim and Vini jr. can always pop up with something. I thought I could find a solution without him."