Actual Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti dismissed Pep Guardiola’s declare that Manchester Metropolis have a 1% probability of successful their Champions League play-off second leg on Wednesday.
Ancelotti watched on as a late turnaround on the Etihad Stadium earned Los Blancos a 3-2 victory within the first leg, with Jude Bellingham netting the winner.
Certainly, it was the fortieth time Actual have gained the primary leg of a European knockout stage sport away from house, they usually have an imperious report in two-legged ties.
They’ve progressed from 37 of the earlier 39, failing solely in opposition to Odense Boldklub (1994-95 UEFA Cup) and Ajax (2018-19 Champions League).
Madrid have additionally misplaced simply considered one of their six Champions League house video games in opposition to Metropolis (W3 D2), taking place 2-1 within the spherical of 16 in 2019-20.
The Opta supercomputer fingers Madrid a 48% win chance to the Residents’ 29.3%, however Ancelotti believes his workforce solely maintain a small benefit within the tie.
“Actually, not even (Guardiola) believes what he mentioned, however I’m going to ask him about it earlier than the sport anyway,” Ancelotti joked in a press convention on Tuesday.
“He doesn’t assume they’ve a one p.c probability of advancing and neither do we predict we’re 99 p.c favourites. We’ve got a small benefit as a consequence of what we did at Manchester, and we’ve got to make use of it in our favour.
“Studying to play with the benefit is a psychological challenge, and it’s tough to take care of it. I may come right here and say that we’ve got no benefit and can play as if we had been 0-0… however it’s nonsense and no one would imagine me.
“What you’ll be able to management is the perspective of the workforce and guarantee we play the identical sport as every week in the past as a result of it went effectively for us. However you’ll be able to’t overlook that you’ve the benefit.”
Lately, Madrid executives met with the pinnacle of Spain’s refereeing physique earlier this week, after the membership filed a proper grievance over the referee’s selections of their 1-0 LaLiga defeat at Espanyol earlier this month.
Ancelotti was livid after referee Alejandro Muniz Ruiz opted to not ship off defender Carlos Romero for a poor problem on Kylian Mbappe within the contest.
Romero would go on to attain the sport’s solely aim, with Actual sending an open letter to the Spanish soccer federation initially of February requesting entry to audio and conversations between officers surrounding the incident.
Ancelotti, nevertheless, mentioned the Champions League had fewer controversial calls, although he nonetheless had points with VAR.
“I do (really feel calmer), the statistics communicate for themselves. There may be much less controversy and fewer intervention by the VAR (within the Champions League), which solely intervenes when essential,” Ancelotti mentioned.
“Within the Champions League, solely the most effective referees from every nation are assigned, and the standard may be very excessive on this respect.
“I’ve doubts (about VAR) as a result of I feel VAR has taken an excessive amount of duty away from the referee. It’s a little bit of a harmful system.
“The VAR has been launched to keep away from blatant and apparent errors, not for interventions which can be football-related. Typically the intention is to take away all of the naturalness of soccer for the sake of a picture.”
