Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media before their match against Leganes on Saturday evening. He was asked about recent links with Brazil, to which he said: “The contract is clear, I have nothing to add to that. I have a lot of affection for Brazil, its players, and its fans, but I have a contract with Real Madrid.”
Ancelotti on the match against Leganes
“The team is doing quite well. The players who have returned have had plenty of time to recover. I’ve given them a few days off. They’ve come back well. Tomorrow marks the start of the final stretch of the season. We have a lot of games between now and the end. We have to do well. We’re in all competitions. Every game increases the responsibility we have because every game can be decisive in fighting for and trying to win the titles we want to win.”
Ancelotti on Flick’s comments
“I understand the complaint. They were short on players. I agree with what he said about Real Madrid not being Barcelona.”
Ancelotti on Tebas’ comments about him
“Nothing new. Do I have to answer you? I already knew about his obsession with Real Madrid; I didn’t know he wanted to be a coach. As I’ve said before, I think he needs to focus more on his own things because I think he’s showing a bit of disrespect to Real Madrid and also to the coaches.”
Ancelotti on rotations for Brazilian players and Fede Valverde
“We’ll see. Vinicius is back, he’s trained well, and he’s in good shape. We have a lot of games ahead of us, and I have the opportunity, which hasn’t happened often, to rotate some players because almost all of them are pretty good. You’ll be able to see the lineup tomorrow.”
Ancelotti about Ronaldo Nazario asking for him to become Brazil’s coach
“I don’t remember speaking to Ronaldo about this. We’ve talked about many other things, we’ve seen each other, we’ve talked, but not about this topic.”
Ancelotti on the league race
“No, La Liga isn’t over. Barcelona has the advantage, but we have El Clásico and there are still many games left. We have to do our best, starting tomorrow. There are 13 games left, which hopefully will be 17 by the end of the season. Hopefully, it’ll be 17 games because that means we’ll be fighting in all competitions until the end.”
Ancelotti on his statements about 72-hour rest period
“I have to add one thing: no justified reason. Because sometimes it can happen that no one has the necessary time, for many reasons. But with Villarreal, the schedule could be changed because Villarreal agreed, and so did the television networks. The only one that didn’t agree to this was LaLiga. So, there was no justified reason: it could be changed, period. If a match can be changed and they don’t change it, we won’t play. If they can’t change it, obviously we’ll show up to play.”
Ancelotti on the prosecution’s accusations for tax fraud by him
“There are many topics for debate. I have to testify, and I’ll do so on Wednesday. This isn’t the topic for debate. What’s happening next week is an appeal filed by the Prosecutor’s Office. I won the first trial, and I fully trust the law and justice. I’m not worried. It bothers me that they say I’ve defrauded anyone, but I’m eager to testify.”
Ancelotti on UEFA’s proceedings
“We trust UEFA. We believe everything was done correctly. We’re waiting for UEFA to give us some feedback, but we’re confident that everything will turn out well.”
Ancelotti on Aurelien Tchouameni
“For Tchouameni, the same speech I made for the others applies. We have a fairly complete squad; we’ll get Ceballos and Mendy back soon, and he can be included in the rotations we’ll make in the upcoming matches.”
Injury updates
“Courtois is a minor injury; he can recover in a few days. And we expect Mendy and Ceballos in the first leg of the Champions League match against Arsenal.”