A Carlo Ancelotti he is not too concerned about this week of City, which has swept the Etihad (3-0 against Brighton and 5-1 against Watford), because the Champions League is another movie and because the Italian has, like Fernando Alonso, his own plan…
Carletto He has been finding a way to overcome major challenges when he had to go this season to the home of the three European roosters that they had in front of them: He left Inter to zero in San Siro, the ultra-powerful PSG in just one goal in Paris and Chelsea, mainland King, also in just one goal in London.
It is not a small thing, because focusing on the last two, they were teams that had been sweeping the 2021-22 Champions League at home. PSG averaged three goals (2-0 against City, 3-2 against Leipzig and 4-1 against Bruges in the group stage) and the Blues de Tuchel more of the same: an average of 2.7 goals at Stamford Bridge, with a colorful and relevant 4-0 against Juventus. This course, the Madrid coach also He knew how to attack two Champions League stadiums even if it was in the League, both the Camp Nou (1-2) and the Pizjuán (2-3)and managed to keep a brilliant semi-finalist like Villarreal at La Cerámica to nil (0-0).
Ancelotti found the antidote and now faces the visit to Manchester with different formulas to oppose Guardiola’s fast touch and precision football.
They range from the global to the individual. In the first place, two footballers with a key defensive role are doubtful but they are not ruled out. Praise (adductor contracture) and Casemiro (muscle discomfort) travel but until this afternoon, when they are tested in training on the pitch of the Etihad, they won’t know if they can play or not.
Courtois saves Messi’s penalty in the first leg at the Parc des Princes in the round of 16.
Of those who will be sure, one stands out above the rest. With Courtois, Madrid has the best insurance policy in this Champions League. It is the one who has made the most stops this edition (41, four more than the benfiquista Vladochimos) and the one that exhibits the best percentage of effectiveness, with an 81.6 success rate in the shots that are made between the three sticks. He is also seen to grow in decisive moments, like that penalty stopped by Messi in the Parc des Princes.
The Pintus method brings the gasoline
The physical issue is an issue that has worried more from outside than from the Madrid technical staff. “The criticism we have received is because they have not seen the data that we have about the matches and the training sessions of the players. Also from the doctors, we are going to finish the season at a good physical level”, Ancelotti explained on April 8. A defense of the planning of the head of physical trainers, Antonio Pintus, key in the team maintaining a constant intensity in the League and destroying PSG in the last thirty minutes of the round of 16 and Chelsea in extra time in the same trance in quarters. In addition, in the energy section Ancelotti has the recent contribution of three footballers in a peak capable of ‘stretching’ the general effort from the starting eleven or the bench: the falcon Valverde, Camavinga and this ‘new’ Rodrygo.
“The criticism of physical condition is because they did not know the data, we are going to finish the season at a good level”
Carlo Ancelotti
Nor is it that Carletto be, in his extensive and award-winning service record, a novice when it comes to holding Guardiola’s gaze without lowering his eyebrow. What’s more, in the memory of Real Madrid is his impressive 5-0 with Madrid against Pep’s Bayern Munich in the 2014 semi-finals, which would lead shortly after in the Tenth. A 1-0 in the first leg in Chamartín and a return in Munich for which Rummenigge predicted that they would burn “to the trees” and the thing ended in an overwhelming 0-4. Ancelotti took out the fire extinguisher that day and now his idea is to do it, in another context and for a different challenge, at the Etihad.