Real Madrid’s Ancelotti wants Manchester City ‘out of the way’

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti explained why he took his midfielder Jude Bellingham off during Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing of RB Salzburg in the Champions League’s league stage, later stating that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get Manchester City “out of the way”.

The elite competition’s defending champions made light work of their Austrian foe at the Bernabeu and Ancelotti told Movistar that his team “achieved the goal”, which was to “win and try to play a good game”.

With Madrid scoring 14 goals in its last three games, the Italian said that “obviously there is no doubt about the quality of what is ahead”.

“We tried to fix the rest because the efficiency we have up front is incredible. The other things need to be fixed. Sometimes we do well and sometimes less. But we are on a good run,” claimed Ancelotti.

Conceded at a time when the points were already in the bag as Madrid led 5-0, Ancelotti insisted he was “not mad about the goal” from Salzburg.

“At the back we did well. (Antonio) Rudiger was very good today, (David) Alaba is back, (Raul) Asencio is fine. It’s a collective problem. That’s the key to this year. If we can have collective commitment we will succeed and we will be able to benefit from the quality in advance”.

Bellingham, brought off not long after the hour mark, was a worrying sight for Madrid fans, but Ancelotti explained that the Englishman – who was superb with two assists for Rodrygo in 11 first-half minutes – had a “back problem” which “wasn’t anything special”. “.

“I had the opportunity to take minutes away from someone and I took them away from Bellingham and (Kylian) Mbappe to be fresher,” Ancelotti concluded.

Thus, Ancelotti must have nodded towards Saturday’s La Liga clash away to Real Valladolid in a late-night affair.

Madrid are two points clear at the Spanish summit but may even trail foes and title-race rivals Atletico Madrid with a point come kick-off as Diego Simeone’s men could have beaten Villarreal in an earlier afternoon game.

Back to the UCL, Ancelotti said in his post-match press conference that “it would be good news to get City out of the way now” after Pep Guardiola’s side lost 4-2 at Paris Saint-Germain and are now on the brink of a stunning league phase KO.

Ancelotti explained that this is “because for me it is one of the candidates to win the Champions League again”. Still, that doesn’t seem likely unless former FC Barcelona boss Guardiola can drastically reverse the Mancunians’ fortunes.