Real Madrid head into the Madrid derby at the Santiago Bernabéu in their best form of the season. After 9 consecutive victories across all competitions, Ancelotti’s men feel more than ready to face the historic rivals of the Madrid City. In this match we will likely see the comeback of Benzema who will complete the team and will surely put Atletico even more in difficulty. Looking at the table, Real Madrid would be pretty ok even with one point but Real Madrid is Real Madrid, and also, these kind of always motivate the players to fight for the victory until the very last moment.
Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the club’s media channels to offer his thoughts ahead of Sunday’s match (9pm CET): “I think it’ll be a hard-fought game. There are some key aspects when you come up against teams like them, such as duels, set pieces, open spaces… because they’re very strong defensively. They’re a threat on the counter-attack and we’ll have to prepare in these areas and be smart”.
“The team’s in good shape. We’ve got a few days to monitor the progress of Benzema, who trained on his own today. Casemiro is fine and the rest of them are fit and ready. Some of them were a bit tired today, but that’s to be expected given that we played just two days ago. We’ll do a pretty big tactical session tomorrow and some light preparation on Saturday in the build-up”, he added.
Most special thing about a derby: “There’s big rivalry between the fans and the players and everyone involved. Atlético want to beat Madrid and Madrid want to beat Atlético”.
Choosing between quality and commitment:“Both of them. Commitment in terms of the mental side of the game, the motivation and peace of mind you need to have because it’s a very demanding game on a mental level. As for quality, it’s all about having the creativity to try and create problems for a side that’s very solid defensively”.
“The most important thing is to have good players and then there’s my commitment, their motivation and to feel comfortable with the playing style we’ll adopt. The players feel comfortable with what we’re doing out on the pitch. The most important things are the quality and commitment on the pitch. Without those elements, it’s difficult for you to go on a good run”.
Collective defensive effort: “Courtois put in a great performance against Sevilla, as did Militão. Alaba continues to be very consistent and the same goes for Mendy. Then you’ve also got the work that the players in front of them do. For example, there’s the job that Vini Jr. does. Everyone talks about what he’s doing on the ball, but he’s also doing really well out of possession and that applies to Rodrygo too. The work that both of them are doing is helping the team to keep clean sheets”.
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