Real Madrid Shifts Focus from Manchester City in UCL to Prepare for ‘Final’ Showdown
Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti will forget about Manchester City to focus on a ‘final’ his team will play at the weekend according to various Spanish outlets including Mundo Deportivo and OK Diario.
Los Blancos head to northwestern England next week to try and knock holders City out of the Champions League last eight.
After achieving a 3-3 first leg draw in the Bernabeu on Tuesday, Madrid needs to exorcise the demons of the semi-finals last term when they had a similar task on their hands.
Again tying 1-1 in the Spanish capital thanks to goals from Vinicius Jr. and Kevin De Bruyne on either side of the ball, Ancelotti’s troops rocked up to the Etihad as the reigning champions looking to reach a second consecutive final but were trounced 4-0 by the English outfit.
Key players such as ‘Vini’ and Jude Bellingham were off key against City this week and it is believed that Ancelotti will make rotations for Saturday’s La Liga match against Mallorca.
According to the mentioned outlets, however, the Italian is forgetting about the kings of the continent to focus on getting the job done at home.
In short, Madrid wants to keep its eight-point lead over FC Barcelona at the Spanish top flight summit ahead of meeting them in El Clasico on April 21.
This can only be achieved by winning against the Copa del Rey runners-up, meaning that “Mallorca matters more than City” in the here and now as explained by Mundo Deportivo, which also says the fixture is being treated like a “final”.
To OK Diario, an anonymous locker room source said: “We all have our minds set on Mallorca. There is no other option. Manchester City is off the radar. We have to be as focused as possible to keep wrapping up the league.”
Whether this means Ancelotti will not rotate players after all remains to be seen, but should his men arrive battleworn for the biggest game of the season against the Premier League giants, and then suffer a KO on the scale of that in 2023, you can guarantee that both he and the club will be hung out to dry by the media back in Spain.