“Mbappe is the best player in Europe, he is so decisive”: Ancelotti

Real Madrid lost 1-0 against Paris Saint-Germain thanks to a late Kylian Mbappé goal, although Los Blancos were dominated throughout the game. 

However, in his post-match press conference, Carlo Ancelotti argued that Real Madrid’s approach to the first game was not overly cautious. 

“We were fairly good defensively,” he stated, summarizing their troubles in the game. However, we were not particularly aggressive. We couldn’t keep the ball and made numerous errors.

He continued “normally, our three midfielders miss less passes than they did today. In our side of the field, we couldn’t get away from their pressure. We couldn’t play it to Asensio, Vincius, or even Benzema in a tidy manner. It’s not difficult. We didn’t do what we wanted with the ball. We don’t usually have that difficulty because we have good players. It didn’t come off today.” 

When asked if his tactics were too conservative, he laughed it off, adding, “To be conservative, Courtois would kick every ball long.”

However, we always attempted to play from the back. It didn’t work because we were under too much pressure from them. I think that we might have been more aggressive with our low block, but it wasn’t a conservative strategy. We tried to play with the ball as usual, but it didn’t work out tonight.” 

“We have to be better in the second leg, when we have the game in our stadium,” the coach stated, referring to the return leg at the Bernabeu. We don’t have to be concerned about goals scored away from home, which could be advantageous. PSG clearly has a slight advantage, but I hope it is insufficient.” 

Ancelotti on Benzema’s return from injury

Karim Benzema began and played the entire game, with the exception of the final five minutes.

He didn’t touch the ball much, but Ancelotti maintained it wasn’t because of his recent injury. “It wasn’t a physical issue,” the Italian remarked of the striker. He was in perfect physical condition. It was only for the last five minutes that I transformed him. His issue was that we couldn’t get the ball to him in the way that we wanted.” 

Mbappe’s performance, according to Ancelotti 

Naturally, all eyes were on Kylian Mbappe, and Ancelotti was asked about the Frenchman’s performance.

“We attempted to manage him and double up on him, which Milito did nicely,” he said of the game-winner.

He added “Mbappe is the best player in Europe, he is so decisive. But he’s the type of player who can always come up with a new strategy.” 

Ancelotti on his conversation with the referee

Ancelotti had a lengthy talk with the referee, fellow Italian Daniele Orsato, at the end of the game. “I felt he got us two cards that were fouls but not much more,” the coach said when asked what he talked about.

We will be without Casemiro and Mendy for the second match, but we have a strong squad.”