Ancelotti: 'Man City is much better than Haaland'
"Man City have changed a bit, and are still very strong with many outstanding individuals. Now they have Haaland in attack and he is scoring a lot of goals," Ancelotti said on April 21 in a press conference before the match. Celta in round 30 of La Liga.
According to the Italian coach, colleague Pep Guardiola has not completely changed his style, but owning a strong striker like Haaland will make Man City's attack somewhat change. Ancelotti said that Man City can still deploy a "perfect" ball control game, and is still very strong in transition situations when Haaland is added.
In the semi-final first leg of the Champions League last year, Real lost 3-4 at Etihad Stadium. When the rematch in Spain, Man City led 1-0 and held the advantage until the 90th minute, but squandered the opportunity to finish the opponent and then pay the price. After two consecutive equalizers from Rodrygo in the 90th and 90+1 minutes, the second leg had to go into extra time. Here, striker Karim Benzema successfully scored a penalty to bring Real into the final.
Recruiting Haaland for a fee of 63 million USD from Dortmund is considered a piece of the puzzle that helps Guardiola realize his ambition to win the Champions League. When Man City was eliminated from the semi-finals last season, many commented that owning a striker with the ability to explode like Haaland would help the club solve difficult matches soon.
After landing at Eithad, the Norwegian striker quickly integrated and shone continuously when he scored 48 goals in just 41 matches from the beginning of the season, breaking many records in both the Champions League and the English Premier League. In the top five European leagues, Haaland is 14 goals ahead of the second, when PSG's Kylian Mbappe has only 34 goals in 37 matches.
Real and Man City rematch in the Champions League semi-finals this season, with the first leg taking place at the Bernabeu on May 9 and the second leg taking place at the Etihad a week later. According to Ancelotti, two semi-finals of the Champions League this season, no team is more appreciated, and Real's approach is just to try to play better than the opponent. He also commented that Real and Man City can both play well in different ways because of the quality of the squad.
After beating Bayern in the quarter-finals, Guardiola said that any club aspiring to win the Champions League must beat Real. When asked about this statement from the Spanish coach, Ancelotti replied: "Real is a very respected club and that's a good thing. And when Guardiola says that, it's even better."
In addition to the Champions League, Real also has ambitions to win La Liga and the King's Cup - where they reach the final against Osasuna on May 6. On average, the royal team had to play every three days for the next four weeks, so Ancelotti criticized the scheduling of UEFA and FIFA. "We have to consider the health of the players. They are the most important part of football, but everyone thinks about himself, the league, the federation, FIFA or UEFA only thinks about himself. That It's not good for football, and something has to be changed."
Ancelotti also confirmed the goal of defeating Celta in the 30th round of La Liga to shorten the gap to eight points and put pressure on Barca - the great club with Atletico on April 23. Real is currently second with 62 points, two points ahead of Atletico and 11 points behind Barca.
