After Real Madrid’s 2-1 victory over Juventus last night, manager Carlo Ancelotti was satisfied with his team’s result but was quick to dismiss their poor display in the second half.
Ancelotti said: “I wasn’t pleased with our second half performance, we didn’t play with enough intensity, perhaps because we were tired.” But he noted: “We won a difficult match against a very good team, and we played with the right balance.”
Karim Benzema was booed off by the home fans when being replaced by substitute Gareth Bale after missing an open goal in the second half to top off another lacklustre match on his part, forcing Ancelotti to defend his striker: “I asked Benzema to do a lot of defensive work, particularly on [Andrea] Pirlo, and although he didn’t score, I’m happy with him.”
Los Blancos took the lead less than four minutes into the match when Angel Di Maria set Cristiano Ronaldo through to round Gianluigi Buffon and score his sixth goal in the Champions League this season. Juventus had equalised before Ronaldo then scored his seventh, a penalty, for Madrid to re-take the lead before half time.
Just minutes into the second half Giorgio Chiellini was then given a red card for an elbow on Ronaldo, which Ancelotti stated did not necessarily help his team: “The game changed completely because afterwards Juve sat back and we didn’t need to score any more goals, our objective was to control the play to win the game.”
Madrid’s 2-1 victory means they should now require just four points from their final three matches in Group B to secure top spot and an easier draw in the round of 16.
Ancelotti will be looking for an improved performance from Los Blancos when they travel to the Nou Camp to face arch rivals Barcelona in ‘El clásico’ on Saturday afternoon.
