The Champions activates Ancelotti’s rebellion | sports

Carlo Ancelotti extended his first spell at Real Madrid thanks to an astonishing pitch in the Champions League, which was also decisive for him to be recruited for the second shift that he now commands. “If I’m here today it’s because Ramos scored that goal,” the coach said a year ago in an interview with Jorge Valdano recorded shortly before the comeback against Manchester City in the semifinals of the last European Cup. The Italian was referring, of course, to the header with which, after minute 93, the defender sent the 2014 final against Atlético in Lisbon to extra time. The Tenth.

The Champions League marks the pace and the temperature in Madrid, where the defeat against Villarreal at home on Saturday and the increase in the distance with respect to Barcelona in the League to 13 points had stirred the atmosphere around the coach. But this Wednesday the Orejona returns to the Bernabéu, which receives Chelsea for the first leg of the quarterfinals (9:00 p.m., Movistar) and the air has changed in the corridors and training fields of Valdebebas. The coach’s shares are trading higher again for the next course, after a couple of months of ups and downs between the defeat in the Super Cup final against Barça in Riyadh, the offer from the Brazilian team and the league stumbles.

Ancelotti himself appeared revitalized this Tuesday in the conference room of the sports city, where he staged an act of rebellion that he had been mulling over for a few weeks. Against doubts, criticism and some installed clichés about his performance. Also against those who attributed the last European Cup that he won to luck: “If you trace back the games, it is because you have more in the last minutes. We have had more confidence, more energy to win games. The matches end when the referee whistles, said a great coach who was [Vujadin] Boskov. We have deserved to win it, and we will try to deserve to win it this year as well,” he said.

It seemed to have ended there, and the employee of the club’s communication department who accompanied him at the table in the Valdebebas conference room passed the turn to the next journalist. But not. He will have something to add. He had a plan in mind, a message: “And not because of management, but because we have played better than others.”

The human gesture of the changing rooms is one of the aspects of the coach’s work that has been most valued, particularly in Madrid, where in his first stage he managed a group with Ramos and Cristiano, two figures of formidable weight and character, and in the second, a process of bloodless transition from the legends to the young. The last happy course ended, with the league and the champions in the showcases, and the footballers dancing with him on the grass of Saint Denis and on top of the celebration bus. Several footballers agreed with the coach that they might need friends. The statement contributed to his legend as a great manager of egos and frustrations, a true legend, but one who believes that part of his work has been swallowed.

His appearance this Tuesday had another moment in which that virtue appeared: “This is a group that feels good among themselves, who understands well when it is time to make a joke and when to be serious. This is such a group: sometimes they are divided together; when the moment must be serious, one must not push them to be serious. For me handling this template is very simple. I manage it very well,” he said, in what was perhaps intended as a joke to defuse the caricature. It was the answer to what the moderator had announced as the last question. “Thank you very much,” the clerk said, and started to leave the room. But Ancelotti was not satisfied.

“Wait,” she stopped him. “And they all constitute it to me: that I am fantastic in management. But then there are other things: that this team has worked well, ”he said in what seemed like a response to one of the most widespread criticisms of his style. “Because this team, if we are lucky enough to win the Copa del Rey, in two seasons has won all possible titles, which sometimes there are teams that do not win it in a lifetime. Having said this, I salute you.” And he left.

Ancelotti had been contemplating making a public defense of his work and that of his team for some time, due to external criticism and the doubts he has perceived in some sections of the club. Just ten days ago, during the game against Valladolid, Dazn’s camera caught a significant scene. The game was stuck at minute 20 and Ancelotti announced to his second, his son Davide, that he was going to intervene. Then he called Asensio and told him the plan: “You play inside and I put Rodrygo on the outside,” he told him. On the next play, Asensio entered the center, opened the band and the Brazilian, who entered through his new lane, made it 1-0. Ancelotti approaches his son to remind him of what he had just ordered. david series. Then he jokes with Asensio: “I know a little about these,” he tells her. And the Spaniard is laughing.

They won 6-0, and three days later 0-4 at the Camp Nou, in the second leg of the Cup semifinal that gave them the opportunity to win all the titles Tuesday in two seasons on May 6, as claimed by this the Italian. In the next appearance in Madrid after the victory in Barcelona, ​​Ancelotti already allowed himself a first rebellion against the environment: “After 1,272 games, I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.” The following night he lost against Villarreal, and the storm returned. In general, the Italian is clear about his plan: “I don’t hear the fine rain. And if I hear it, I get into the ombrello [paraguas]”. Sometimes, like this Tuesday, sniffing the European Cup, it is also uncovered: “We want to experience another magical night at the Bernabéu.”

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