Ancelotti: Real Madrid are not in a crisis

Ancelotti: Real Madrid are not in a crisis

Carlo Ancelotti says Real Madrid are not in a crisis and that they can turn the Copa del Rey clash against Atletico Madrid around in the second leg at the Bernabeu next week.

Los Blancos slumped to a 2-0 defeat at the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday night, their second defeat in four days after winning their previous 22.

Back-to-bacl defeats constitute as a mini crisis amongst the Spanish press when Madrid are involved but Ancelotti played that talk down and said in the post-match press conference that although his men face an uphill task, they can still progress.

“" think it is an exaggeration to call this a crisis," he said. "We are not happy and will have to get back to winning ways quickly. This is just the first half of the knock-out, we still have to play the return leg and anything could happen."

He continued: "Atlético have the advantage, but we play at home and anything could happen. We will try everything to win. We are not out of the tie yet and we still have a chance to go through.

"We didn't do well after the penalty. We needed to be more efficient during the first half. We played very wide and lacked penetration in general, not just from the right side of the pitch. Playing Atlético is difficult because they defend well, play as a unit and are very compact."

It was the third time Atleti have seen off Madrid this season following their success at the Santiago Bernabeu in the league and lifting the Spanish Super Cup. "Atletico are a team that are very well organised defensively and work very well as a unit," said the Italain, who added that he was pleased with the performance of Sami Khedira. "Khedira had a good game, didn't make mistakes and positioned himself well. I liked how he played," he said.

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