Carlo Ancelotti ‚worried‘ about Real Madrid despite Las Palmas win
Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he is „worried“ about Real Madrid’s showing in their 2-0 win over Las Palmas on Wednesday evening.
Madrid rested the likes of Jude Bellingham, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric for the midweek clash with Las Palmas, but were able to comfortably win the game thanks to goals from Joselu and Brahim Diaz either side of half-time.
The win saw Madrid leapfrog Barcelona once again in the La Liga table into second place – behind early, surprising, pace-setters Girona – however speaking after the game to the press, Ancelotti seemed far from enthused with the performance.
„I am worried about the end of the second half, when we have slowed down,“ he said. „We did not have good control of the game, and we lacked intensity, and that worries me more.
„We have started strong to avoid problems, like conceding early. What we lacked in the first half was a bit of accuracy [in front of goal] and in the second half we lacked intensity.“
Ancelotti will, however, be buoyed by the return of star forward Vinicius Junior after a lengthy injury lay-off. The Brazilian international missed for games with an injury, but returned to action against Las Palmas – coming off of the bench in the 57th minute.
„He came in with a lot of desire, a lot of enthusiasm, he wanted to contribute,“ Ancelotti said of Vinicius‘ return. „After a month he’s lacking something, but he’s fully recovered. We have seen that he will be ready for Saturday’s match.“
While Vinicius is back from injury along with Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal, both Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba suffered knocks during Wednesday evening’s game, with Ancelotti revealing that the latter will likely not be fit to face Girona on Saturday.
„Let’s start with the good news: we have Mendy and Carvajal back,“ he continued. „Rudiger is injured, he thinks it’s just a knock and he’ll be fine. Alaba has an abductor problem and I think he won’t be there [on Saturday]. We’ll see in these days what can be done for Saturday’s game.“