Real Madrid: Ancelotti apologized for his German before the match against Bayern

MUNICH —

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti apologized on his return to Munich for not remembering how to speak German.

“Ich habe vergessen deutsch (I forgot German),” the Italian coach said on Monday, mixing up the word order, before the teams meet in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday.

Ancelotti coached Bayern for just over a year in the 2016–17 season and they won the Bundesliga, but the league title alone was not enough for the club.

Bayern have won four previous Bundesliga titles. After Ancelotti achieved his fifth consecutive dedication, Bayern became champions in the next six seasons.

Ancelotti said goodbye to the team after a poor start to the 2017/18 season. The 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain was the last straw for club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t as successful then as we are now at Real Madrid,” Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich said on Monday.

Under Ancelotti’s leadership, Bayern were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Madrid. Borussia Dortmund knocked the Bavarian giants out of the German Cup, leaving them alone in the Bundesliga.

“One title is not enough for us,” Bayern president Uli Hoeneß said at the time.

Ancelotti left the club in September, his reputation tarnished after the previous season’s failure in the Champions League, a competition he had previously won three times.

But Ancelotti said on Monday he had only good memories of his time in Munich.

“I was lucky enough to coach Bayern and although it could have lasted longer, I have fantastic memories of that year and a half,” he said.

Thomas Tuchel, the current Bayern coach, praised Ancelotti’s figure, calling him a “legend”.

“What Ancelotti has done is of the highest level,” Tuchel said. “At the same time, he is always kind, sociable and modest. Even in my first games against him, when I was new to the Champions League, he was always very polite and humble.”