Carlo Ancelotti has ‘absolute faith’ as Real Madrid move on from El Clasico loss

Carlo Ancelotti said he had “absolute faith” in his “hurting” Real Madrid squad after they suffered El Clasico embarrassment in the Spanish Super Cup final.

Real were demolished 5-2 by arch-rivals Barcelona in Saudi Arabia on Sunday – the second time Hansi Flick’s side have thrashed them this season after a 4-0 LaLiga win at the Bernabeu in October – when they played against 10 for the final half-hour following the dismissal of Barca goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Ancelotti’s side return to action against Celta Vigo in the Copa del Rey on Thursday.

“I have a squad full of youth, energy, quality and commitment,” Ancelotti said at his pre-match press conference for the round-of-16 cup tie at the Bernabeu.

“They’re not always able to show that but this is a squad of great value. I still have absolute faith in them.

“This squad won the Club World Cup a month ago and six months ago they lifted the European Cup. At this stage, we’re competing in every competition.

“We lost a final, we’re hurting, but we have won a lot of finals. Sometimes, you have to pay the bills for all the good things you’ve managed. It was a tough one to swallow but it’s only one game.

“We’re going to fight to the end as we always do. Everyone can have their opinions, but I still have complete faith in my players.

“Especially those who aren’t showing their best form right now.”

Ancelotti said his intention was to play “the best possible side” against Celta, who are currently 12th in LaLiga and have won four of their last six games in all competitions.

He confirmed Andriy Lunin would replace Thibaut Courtois in goal and insisted that Real must benefit from Kylian Mbappe’s return to fitness.

Mbappe ended a three-game scoreless streak with his 15th goal of the season against Barcelona in Jeddah.

Ancelotti said: “He needed time to adapt to the team and to get back to his optimum fitness levels.

“He’s had a few issues that have kept him out a little but now he’s in good form and the team must take advantage of that.”

Celta’s visit is the first of three home games for Real in the space of a week.

Las Palmas are Sunday’s visitors in LaLiga action and RB Salzburg provide Champions League opposition on Wednesday.

Ancelotti said: “We have a big opportunity to come back after a poor game, which really hurt us.

“But we’re not letting ourselves be too down about it, we want to react.

“This is a good game for us against opposition who play some great football. I hope the team can show a positive reaction after a poor display the other day.

“We’re well-placed in every competition. Of course, it was a bad performance, we made all manner of mistakes. We assessed it and we’ve tried to find solutions.”

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-72310761-1’, ‘auto’, {‘name’: ‘pacontentapi’});
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘referrer’, location.origin);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension1’, ‘By PA Sport Staff’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension2’, ‘0280d95c-9065-4f1a-86db-2aa965125dbc’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension3’, ‘paservice:sport,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:match-reports’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension6’, ‘story’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension7’, ‘composite’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension8’, null);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘dimension9’, ‘sport:football’);
ga(‘pacontentapi.set’, ‘anonymizeIp’, true);
ga(‘pacontentapi.send’, ‘pageview’, { ‘location’: location.href, ‘page’: (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), ‘title’: ‘Carlo Ancelotti has u2018absolute faithu2019 as Real Madrid move on from El Clasico loss’});