Madrid (AFP) – Real Madrid’s Italian coach, Carlo Ancelotti, expressed his confidence in the ability of his counterpart Xavi to return rival Barcelona to the right track after the Catalan team deviated from it recently.
Published in:
2 minutes
Barcelona fell to fourth place in the Spanish League that holds its title, after drawing 1-1 at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, and on Tuesday it will play a very important match against Portuguese Porto at home in the fifth and penultimate round of the seventh group competitions of the Champions League.
Barcelona missed the opportunity to qualify for the final 16, two rounds before the end of the group stage, with its sudden loss to Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk 0-1 early this month in the German city of Hamburg.
But the fate of Xavi’s team, which is missing the efforts of its German goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen due to injury, as confirmed on Tuesday, is still in his hands, as it will guarantee its qualification on Tuesday if it wins over its guest and runner-up Porto in the fifth and penultimate round, in a move that will relieve the pressure on the coach and his players after a series. Of the fluctuating results.
Ancelotti, who will bid farewell to Real Madrid at the end of the season in order to take over supervision of the Brazilian national team, said that he does not have any advice for Xavi because the latter has the ability to deal with the situation, adding, “Xavi, like me, knows football well (and knows) that there is criticism.”
He believed that fluctuations in results “occasionally happen, but Xavi has the experience to manage the situation.”
Unlike Barcelona, Real secured its qualification to the Champions League final two rounds before the end of the group stage, in addition to topping the Spanish League standings on goal difference against Girona, which tied Sunday with Athletic Bilbao 1-1.
Real Madrid will play on Wednesday at home against Italian club Napoli in Group F, and a draw will be enough for them to take the lead.
Ancelotti touched on the decision of his former team Napoli, the Italian League champion last season, to abandon French coach Rudi Garcia and replace him with Walter Mazzarri, who made a successful return to the team he supervised between 2009 and 2013, leading him to a 2-1 victory over Atalanta on Saturday in the local league.
Ancelotti said that Mazzarri “knows Italian football well and is a good friend,” considering that “changing the coach will give them more motivation.”
© 2023 AFP
2023-11-28 13:59:06
#Ancelotti #confident #Xavis #ability #put #Barcelona #track
