Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti praised his young English star Jude Bellingham after leading the Royal Club to a 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Spanish League Clasico on Saturday, while Barcelona’s Spanish coach Xavi Hernandez insisted his side did not deserve defeat.
German international Ilkay Gundogan scored for Barcelona in the sixth minute, and Bellingham equalized for Real Madrid in the 68th minute, then added a second goal in the second minute of stoppage time to rob the Royals of victory.
Real Madrid increased its score to 28 points, while Barcelona’s score stood at the third place with 24 points.
“Bellingham was decisive. He scored the first goal brilliantly and he was brilliant with the second,” Ancelotti said in reports carried by Real Madrid’s official website.
He continued, “His position, especially his performance, surprises us. He always tries to reach from the back. What surprised us today was his shot because he doesn’t score many goals from the penalty area and today he scored. He can easily score 20 or 25 goals. We will talk about that. Let’s not think.” “As a striker, but he is very important for us. He scores a lot of goals, but we expect goals from strikers.”
He added, “He looks like a veteran. His demeanor is very good. Good for him if he gets closer to that area. He was the player who made the difference today.”
During the post-match press conference, he said, “The key to the match was the different behavior in the first and second half. In the first half, we were a weak and slow team that lacked ferocity, but in the second half, it was the complete opposite. We were very united, strong and ferocious.” .”
Ancelotti – who reached his 250th match in charge of Real Madrid’s coaching staff – praised his veteran Croatian Luka Modric (38), saying: “He changed the dynamic. We had more control of the ball. Then Barcelona’s pressure dropped. The 60th minute, especially after the first half.” “The dynamic of possession changed with the arrival of Luca. After that, Bellingham was very active. He scored a wonderful goal and then he was very smart.”
He concluded, “Our goal is not a draw, but to try to win. The draw was not dynamic because it gave us more strength when we weakened Barcelona, who had been playing well until then. It was 3 points. On a very difficult ground. We played many matches away from home. We played 7 matches. .” The 5 matches in the Spanish league were very difficult. The competitive schedule required a lot from us and we performed well.”
Speaking about the referee of the match, Ancelotti said: “If you don’t talk about him, it means he did a very good job. He is one of the best referees in Europe. He was very nice and very calm. It was very good. A perfect match for both teams, with a lot of fair play. It should be. … That’s the thing in this kind of competition, there has to be respect on both sides.
‘Frustration and Anger’
On the other hand, Barca coach Xavi Hernandez considered his team’s defeat “unfair”, saying the team’s performance improved and played a good match, but the problem was in front of the goal.
Xavi said in statements published on the club’s official website: “It’s a shame. We were unlucky in the match. We didn’t deserve to lose. We’re frustrated and angry, but we have to move on.”
He added, “We improved the way we played, we played a good match and we deserved it. But this is football: if you don’t take the chances you are given, you can be punished for it.”
He added, “We played well for 60 minutes, but then the performance dropped, probably due to fatigue. Our plan was executed well, but the key to the match was in front of the goal. If we had scored the second goal, things would have gone differently.”
Despite the defeat, the Barcelona coach was keen to look to the future, adding: “Now we have to focus on the Real Sociedad match, recover and rest. We don’t deserve to lose, but we have to correct the mistakes we made. We could have won.”
