Real Madrid News
Real Madrid believe Carlo Ancelotti will not be punished for referee criticism
The story of Carlo Ancelotti’s post-match comments and its possible implication has become the elephant in the room in Madrid. The RFEF see the manager’s comments to be in bad spirits and could ban him for up to four games if found guilty.
According to reports from Mario Coretgana, Ancelotti is not optimistic about escaping punishment and expects to be banned. However, he is of the stand that his sanction will be for less than four games. Meanwhile, Real Madrid believe that the manager will not be banned at all.
While the club believe the manager can wipe off his shoulders and walk freely, one cannot help but feel that the notion is overly optimistic. After all, Jose Gaya faced the same four-game sanction in August when he criticised the officials.
The controversy began when Marco Asensio’s made contact with the ball late in Los Blancos’ clash against Girona. While the Spaniard’s hand was close to his body and not in an unnatural position, the match officials turned a deaf ear and declared a penalty to the visitors.
After the game, Ancelotti lashed out at the officiating saying,
“It is true that the left hand is in a bit of a strange position. If he touches the ball with his hand there could be a doubt, but he simply does not give the ball with his hand. They have made it up.”
One can expect a clearer picture of the situation when the coach faces the press ahead of his team’s clash against Celtic later today. Until then, it will be a waiting game of filtering contrasting reports and speculations.
In what could be a real deal breaker for Real Madrid ahead of their Copa del Rey semi-final second leg clash against Barcelona, it has been revealed that as many as three Barça will be absent from the game while another key player remains a major doubt.
The list includes the likes of Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Andreas Christensen. The trio is certain to miss the game through respective injuries while a certain Frenkie de Jong is more or less ruled out, as per Javi Miguel.
It must be remembered that Barcelona are heading into the second leg with a 1-0 advantage. But the absence of the aforementioned players means Madrid can work on exploiting the frailties.
Despite the absence of such big names, Barcelona did pretty well against Elche in their previous outing, coming out 4-0 victorious, with the goals coming from Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres.
With options lacking in midfield, Xavi decided to use the likes of Sergi Roberto and Eric Garcia along with Gavi in the heart of the lineup. In any way, they do have Sergio Busquets and Franck Kessie as backups if needed.
The defence, on the other hand, was perfectly guarded by Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde.
One can expect Xavi to once again interchange Araujo with Kounde on the right since the Uruguayan has been rather successful in minimizing the threat of Vinicius Jr.
As far as Madrid are concerned, they are sweating over the fitness of three key defenders, namely, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho, and Ferland Mendy. Between these three, the Frenchman is out for about a month while Rudiger and Nacho are expected to be back before the Clasico.
If there are no casualties against Real Valladolid, Madrid will have a perfect midfield and attack, with only Mariano Diaz missing.
