Ancelotti demands more from his stars after Real Madrid’s surprise defeat to Lille

BARCELONA —

Carlo Ancelotti is not easily upset.

At best, he raises an eyebrow and avoids arguing during the conversation. Real Madrid rarely gives the impassive Italian a reason to show his dissatisfaction amid a steady crop of titles.

But there are exceptional situations, such as a 1-0 defeat to lowly Lille in the Champions League.

“The sadness comes from the team’s feeling that it was not a very good game,” the most successful coach in Champions League history said after Wednesday’s surprise defeat in France.

“It’s a sport and you can lose, but we didn’t give a good feeling,” admitted Ancelotti. “That’s what worries me the most, but we have all the resources to learn from this defeat and do better. We need to turn things around quickly because we have another game on Saturday.”

In this match, the white team takes on a clearly recovering Villarreal team. Madrid is second in La Liga, three points behind Barcelona. Villarreal are one point behind in third place and have one of the top scorers in Spain.

Despite replacing Kylian Mbappe and being the savior, the Merengue team could not find a way to respond to the penalty that striker Jonathan David converted in stoppage time in the first half to give Lille victory.

It was Madrid’s first defeat in the competition since losing 4-0 to Manchester City in the 2003 semi-finals.

Real Madrid’s first setback in 11 games this campaign came after a 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid in La Liga at the weekend.

Ancelotti blamed his entire team for the poor performance and demanded more from his attacking players.

“It’s difficult to evaluate today’s game. We did everything wrong: with the ball, with transition, with intensity, we lost duels… We need to look at things with a cool head and not throw everything to the wind, but we need to improve,” he emphasized. “It was difficult for us to generate and create. Possession The ball was slow and with few ideas. We have hitters who need more vertical play than usual and if you play slow, that’s a problem.”

“Hopefully this defeat will be a fantastic wake-up call.”

Ancelotti has a problem that would be the envy of any manager: how to fit a striker consisting of Vinicius Junior and Mbappe, who likes to play on the left, into a squad that also includes Rodrigo and Jude Bellingham, last season’s top scorer?

Having combined different players into a three-man attack at the start of the season, Ancelotti resorted to fielding two players up front against Atlético Madrid and Lille. Endrick started against Lille, making the 18-year-old Brazilian the club’s youngest ever starter in the Champions League.

“I’m very happy about this and not about the defeat,” commented Endrik. “It was a tough game. “Lille played well and made life difficult for us.”

Marcelino García Toral has Villarreal playing like the best in La Liga with just one defeat in eight matches. He has the second-highest points total as a visitor in the campaign, with 10 out of a possible 12.

Rookie Ayoze Perez has six goals for the Yellow Submarine. He is second only to Pole Robert Lewandowski of Barcelona, ​​who has seven points in the tournament.