Ancelotti: La Liga wide open

Carlo Ancelotti has insisted that the race for La Liga remains “wide open” ahead of Real Madrid’s match against Granada on Sunday.

Los Blancos’ 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in the Clasico before the international break saw them fall four points behind the Catalans with only 10 games remaining, but the Coach is adamant everything is still play for.

“We’re convinced that the League is still wide open. The team are feeling well and have great enthusiasm,” he said after the game.

“We’ve signed one of the best defenders in Europe, but he won’t be here until next season.

“We still have [Dani] Carvajal and [Alvaro] Arbeloa in the meantime. Competition hasn’t affected our rivals, but we’re only focused on this season.

“We’re convinced that everything is still open, but we still have the ability to fail. We have to win all our remaining matches. The team are excited, fresh and eager.

“Compared with last year, we’re in better shape physically. Only Pepe has a little problem, which will be solved very soon.

“We have a lot of games in April. It’s normal to think that I need the entire squad. I’ll try to rotate the team and use all my players.

“We haven’t made any calculations on the points that Barcelona might drop, our objective is to win the next ten games. We’ve done it before and it’s not a utopia.

“I think we can repeat [our winning run from earlier in the season]. I’m confident in the team and the players. I see a team, who are fresh and ready to fight in every game.

“Everyone understands that timing is important. If we play well, the fans will help us, that’s our objective. [We’d like to] repeat the performance we gave against Barcelona. That was good.

We’re focused on [Sunday’s] game. We’ve improved our performance levels recently, but we’ll prepare [for Granada] like we usually do, in the knowledge that we can’t fail.

“[On Madrid’s 2007 title win], we haven’t spoken about the past.

“We must only focus on the match this week, not Atletico Madrid. Playing well and winning [against Granada] will give us confidence needed for the match against Atletico.”

Tags Carlo Ancelotti
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