Ancelotti: "There was no bad faith, I have never failed nor will I disrespect the referees"

MADRID, 1 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The coach of Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, affirmed this Tuesday that he did not have "bad faith" when he said last Sunday that the penalty that was pointed out to them against Girona was invented and that he simply wanted to point out that it had not been because "he has never" missed nor will he lack "respect for the referees", although he was not excessively concerned about a possible sanction either.

"I have to clarify this issue, although the only thing clear is that they have denounced me for what I have said. But in Italy, saying that it was an invented penalty means that they have called one that was not, bad faith does not enter, nor the accusation against the referee because I have never disrespected him and I will never disrespect him," Ancelotti warned at a press conference.

The Italian was ironic about his possible four-game ban. "Nothing happens, I've been on the bench for 1,200 minutes, it doesn't change much. I still sleep at night, I've said something that everyone in football thinks. If they penalize me, be patient," he stressed.

"For me, the problem is still alive. For me, it was not a penalty and my personal opinion is because of what they explained to us at the beginning of the season. They can say that they have changed the rule and that this is always a penalty, or is it enough to say that It was a mistake, no one is infallible," he added.

The one from Reggiolo "no" agrees with the thought that his team cannot complain about refereeing. "This could happen to Real Madrid or to other clubs, the important thing is clarity, it's not a Real Madrid, Girona or Barcelona issue, it's a football issue that is still not clear. If it's a penalty, we have to go back to the beginning of the season and explain the rule, that I'm not stupid and I understand it very well. The one that they explained to us says that it's not a penalty", he reiterated.

Ancelotti clarified that the VAR has been "a good invention", but that "sometimes it has more prominence than the referee, who is the one who should always be the protagonist". "He entered football to clear up clear errors and I understand that it is a very fine line, but on Sunday it did not seem to me that not whistling was a clear and evident error", he sentenced.

On the other hand, ahead of the match against Celtic in the Champions League this Wednesday, he believes that he will not be able to count on Aurelien Tchouameni, while Karim Benzema is doubtful. "If he has good feelings he will be in the squad and then choose if he starts or plays a part," he warned.

In this sense, the Madrid coach defended the '9' against the possibility that he was reserving for the World Cup. "He has not played because he was not feeling well, he has had a couple of injuries and he is not a child, he is 34 years old, he takes good care of himself, but sometimes you are not available. play", settled.

Ancelotti also assured that the last duel of the group stage is "important" because they play to be first. "We play against a team that usually plays very intensely and we want to show our best level again and we have all the conditions to do so, I think we'll be able to get the best out of it", he stressed after two consecutive games without winning against RB Leipzig and the Girona.

Anyway, the Italian pointed out that "it is not too important" to be first in the group because there are teams that are second that "are very competitive" and that it is "more so for the prestige that the club has in this competition."

"We've learned from the mistakes we've made and they've been different. We didn't have the concentration we need to have in these games and against Girona it was harder for us to recover the ball and against Leipzig we had more defensive vigilance on the counterattacks", He detailed the last two clashes.

Ancelotti is clear that Celtic "are not going to change their identity" and that they will arrive at the Bernabéu "to play with intensity, passion and quality", for which he foresees "an open game". "I respect them a lot and I think that with their quality they could have done better because they played good games and against us they did very well for 60 minutes," he recalled.

Finally, he confessed that "no one sleeps well if an important team" stays out of the Champions League, as has happened to FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid, but stressed that "it cannot be said that Spanish football has lost credit in Europe" . "It can happen that one wins the Champions League and another the Europa League, you have to wait a bit to say that it's not competitive, it's still very competitive," he concluded.