Ancelotti happy with Madrid work-rate
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
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Carlo Ancelotti described Real Madrid CF's effort as "fundamental" while Josep Guardiola recognised FC Bayern München will need to "crank up a gear or two" in next week's return.
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Carlo Ancelotti, Madrid coach
I'm happy with everything, because the match was difficult. We played well, suffering sometimes and playing well in attack. Overall, I'm happy with my team.
In the beginning we were a little shy, losing possession at the start and dropping deep. In the second half, Bayern were less effective. The work we did was fundamental. [Fábio] Coentrão has had the help of Isco many times and [Ángel] Di María got help from [Daniel] Carvajal. It's a group effort.
Without [Gareth] Bale and with Cristiano [Ronaldo] at 50%, it was not easy. The team worked well. Cristiano made an effort to play. The second leg is very difficult; we have a small advantage but we have to play with the same confidence and desire as we showed today. Nobody knows what can happen in Munich.
Josep Guardiola, Bayern coach
I'm proud of my team. They showed a lot of strength against one of the best teams in the world. I think that we can still crank up a gear or two in the return leg.
We wanted to have a lot of possession and have a quick transition from defence to attack. We controlled the game, but Madrid were waiting to counterattack and they have the players to take advantage of this.
Congratulations to Madrid for the win but there is another game in Munich, 90 more minutes, and we'll see how it goes. They are very physical; they are the best team in the world on the counterattack. We wanted to have long spells of possession and try to keep the ball out on the wings. We lacked a goal. There is another game and we will try to win in front of our fans.
We did everything we could. We can't win every game. We played against one of the best and most expensive teams in the world. I hope that our fans can give us the support that we need in the return leg. The result today is certainly not ideal, but we can still improve in the second leg.
We will analyse the game and then decide what our best options are for the return leg in order to successfully overcome this task. My optimism is still very high; it's even higher than it was before this game.
