It’s funny, but when Charles Ancelotti talk about the round of 16 from Champions He does it as if the competition starts now. The group stage is ignored, as if it had not existed for Real Madrid, and assuming that it is now when the really important part of the competition arrives. ‘Carletto’ is enthusiastic about football, he likes rivals with history and dazzling players. He doesn’t mind having them in front of him because he takes it as a challenge.
The soccer player inside him comes out. Like when he spoke about Vinicius when asked by the English press in the preview: “He likes to play football wherever he is. It’s a pleasure to see him play, but not only for Real Madrid fans. Just as it’s a pleasure to see players like Mbappé , Gavi, Salah…”. Vinicius is going to play with Benzema and the question is whether Rodrygo, one of the architects of the triumphant run in the Champions League last season, will do it, or if he will bet on four midfielders.
“That is the doubt,” he confessed. “I’m thinking about whether to play with the most controlled team or the most launched in attack,” she added. Which invites us to think that with Camavinga, Modric, Valverde, Vinicius and Benzema fixed in the eleven, the alternative is between the sixth man on the attacking front being a player like Ceballos, who can help get the ball played from behind against the fierce pressure from Liverpool, leaving Rodrygo and Asensio on the bench. Two revulsives that also allow the Italian to have a resource on the bench that he always likes to manage, a player capable of changing the game. And the Brazilian and the Spaniard are doing it when they come out.
memories of paris
Minutes before Ancelotti, Modric appeared in the press room, who was asked more about his future than about the game. “I always repeat the same thing: I want to stay here, I feel goodI want to continue at Real Madrid and I have to talk to the club and see what the club thinks. But I have to deserve it, I don’t want them to give me anything,” he reflected.
The madridistas were preceded by Jürgen Klopp, who warned that the final in Paris “was agony, because we had chances, but Real Madrid didn’t even flinch. It’s something we have to learn from them. It doesn’t affect them that they get chances They keep playing their game.” The best example of isolation is Vinicius, who, despite the noise that is generated in the League every time he leaves the Bernabéu, is capable of performing at his level.
Klopp gave his opinion on the controversy surrounding the Brazilian. “There is nothing in the world that can justify that.It doesn’t matter what I do on the pitch, I don’t know,” said the Liverpool coach, known for taking a position on social causes and getting involved in issues in which the world of football tends to tiptoe.
One drop per line
Strictly sporting, Liverpool begins to stick out its head in the Premier and is close to the Champions League positions after a couple of games with favorable results in which the ‘red’ team has also been able to recover players. The German has a loss per line. It is true that Van Dijk reappears, reaching the eleven recently recovered, but neither will Konaté nor Thiago and neither will the Colombian Luis Díaz. Diogo Jota could play, who has hardly enjoyed minutes after a long injury. There are doubts with Darwin Núñez’s shoulder.
But beyond the doubts and casualties, confirmed by those of Kroos and Tchouaméni in the whites, and with doubts about Alaba due to a blow at the last minute in training, ‘Carletto’ spoke of “getting a good result for the return”. Although he did not rule out repeating the 0-3 that he had already achieved as coach with the Whites at Anfield, he warned that he is waiting for a Liverpool “that squeezes, that suffocates us up top and doesn’t let us breathe.” Although there are no excuses, the sparkle in Ancelotti’s eyes betrays a big game. Klopp’s nervous laugh, too.
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