Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has downplayed Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola’s assertion that City have only a 1% chance of overcoming Real Madrid in their Champions League playoff.
The two teams are set to clash again at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Wednesday, following a thrilling 3-2 victory for Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium last week.
Despite the first-leg win, Ancelotti cautioned his players against complacency, emphasizing that the tie is far from over.
“Honestly, not even [Guardiola] believes what he said, but I’m going to ask him about it before the game anyway,” Ancelotti joked during a press conference on Tuesday.
“He doesn’t think they have a 1% chance of advancing and neither do we think we are 99% favorites. We have a small advantage due to what we did at Manchester and we have to use it in our favor.”
The Italian coach acknowledged the psychological challenge of playing with a lead.
“Learning to play with the advantage is a psychological issue and it is difficult to deal with it. I could come here and say that we have no advantage and will play as if we were 0-0, but it’s nonsense and nobody would believe me,” he explained.
“What you can control is the attitude of the team and ensure we play the same game as a week ago because it went well for us. But you can’t forget that you have the advantage.”
Ancelotti also addressed the topic of refereeing and VAR, contrasting the Champions League with LaLiga. This comes after Real Madrid recently lodged a formal complaint regarding refereeing decisions in the Spanish league.
“I do [feel calmer], the statistics speak for themselves. There is less controversy and less intervention by the VAR [in the Champions League], which only intervenes when necessary,” Ancelotti stated.
He attributed this to the higher quality of referees assigned to Champions League matches.
However, Ancelotti still expressed reservations about the VAR system in general.
“I have doubts [about the VAR] because I think the VAR has taken too much responsibility away from the referee. It’s a bit of a dangerous system,” he commented.
“The VAR has been introduced to avoid blatant and obvious mistakes, not for interventions that are football related. Often the aim is to remove all the naturalness of football for the sake of an image.”
