“I didn't see myself out of the tie ever”

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti celebrated reaching the final of the Copa del Rey in extra time after a 4-4 draw against Real Sociedad, in a match in which he assured that they did “many good things”, but also “many mistakes” in defence that must be corrected. “To concede four goals is not good, but it is very good to score four and we could have scored more. We are a team with little balance, but with a lot of effectiveness in attack because scoring four against la Real is not easy at all. A lot of good things: we also made a lot of mistakes, but, in the end, we delivered,” he said at the press conference.

“We also had a bit of bad luck. Alaba touched the ball with bad luck and, afterwards, we were not good at set pieces, but, in the other box, we scored two goals from set pieces.. There are things to improve, but we are in the final,” he added. Ancelotti praised the great physical effort of his players to end up being superior in extra time and drew positive conclusions.

“I think we are pretty good, we played well in extra time, we brought in fresh legs, those who came on contributed and those who played from the start contributed until the end. Vinicius, Rodrygo and Bellingham played a spectacular match on a physical level and we finished with more energy than Real Sociedad in extra time”, he assured. The Madrid coach thanked the public for their support and admitted that he gave a wake-up call to Brazilian Vinicius Junior to get involved defensively, which led to him bringing out his best version.

“I've never seen myself out of the tie: at the Bernabeu, anything can happen in this type of match, with this atmosphere. When we have to come back from behind, we never give up. The fans support with a very warm atmosphere that makes us never give up at home,” he said. “What I told him has brought out the best Vinicius, he has changed the pace and, in the end, he has been decisive. In one of his moves, we scored the 2-3 and he has endured at a spectacular physical level until the end, showing all his qualities,” he told reporters

Finally, after ensuring that the referee should have shown a red card for a hard tackle on Vinicius, he praised Endrick's game. “He played very well, that's what we ask of him, to be ready on the clearance and he made a fantastic finish. This is Endrick, a player who may not touch the ball much, but he is very effective in attack. Playing 70 minutes at this level is enough”..