In Real Madrid's hard-fought 2-1 away win over Celta in the La Liga match, manager Carlo Ancelotti was interviewed by Real Madrid's official website and attended the post-match conference to give an in-depth critique of his team's performance, with particular praise for veteran Modric.
Ancelotti began by congratulating himself on completing his 200th La Liga game and lamented, "It's been 200 grueling games, many of them successful and a few heartbreaking. Today we are happy, it's always difficult to play after the break, especially away from home, but we still got the three points." He admitted that the hardest thing to do was to maintain the tempo and intensity of the game and that the team did not have a good balance of attack and defense in the first half, but improved their defense in the second half and the substitutes energized the team.
On the goals from Mbappe and Vinicius, Ancelotti said, "The two goals were fantastic, both of them are good enough to do what they did and they took their chances. They have trained very well this interval, improved their fitness and should continue to do so."
Speaking about Modric's performances, Ancelotti was full of praise, "It has been an honor and a pleasure to coach him and work with him. What he has achieved and is achieving is what he deserves, he is an exceptional professional, a high level guy." He singled out Modric's great passes for the important three points for his team and emphasized that Modric, whether he starts or comes on as a substitute, always helps to change the game. On Modric breaking the record for the oldest player to play in team history, Ancelotti said, "He was an unrivaled player and still is. It's Real Madrid's good fortune to have this player."
In addition, Ancelotti parsed the team's formation and positional changes. He revealed that Bellingham's positional change was part of a plan to capitalize on Celta's weakness of poor handling of balls that land at the far post. Regarding the positional change of Chouamene, Ancelotti said that he needs to solve the problem of losing possession and then moving his position forward resulting in the loss of the barrier between the two center backs, but will not always play like this, and will be adjusted according to the opponent's formation.
On the issue of his team giving Celta too many chances on goal during the game, Ancelotti said that he must improve in this area and admitted that his team lacks offensive and defensive balance. He mentioned that the goal conceded in the second half could have been avoided if the team had been more focused.
Finally, Ancelotti responded to rumors that Bellingham expressed his displeasure with Vinicius' lack of passing. He stated that he didn't see that behavior, but if it happened, it shows that Bellingham has a lot of character, and he wasn't worried about the issue affecting the unity within the team. He revealed that the players were talking and laughing after the game and had no problems.
