Tribal Football

Ancelotti: Real Madrid players showed special character and commitment for win at Villarreal

Carlos Volcano
Ancelotti: Real Madrid players showed special, character and commitment for win at Villarreal
Ancelotti: Real Madrid players showed special, character and commitment for win at Villarreal LaLiga
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti praised his players after their win at Villarreal on Saturday.

Juan Foyth had the hosts ahead before Kylian Mbappe struck twice, with all the goals occuring in the first-half.

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Ancelotti was still angry over the scheduling after Wednesday night's triumphant Champions League shootout at Atletico Madrid after extra-time.

He said afterwards: ”This team has something special, character and commitment. This isn’t always the case and I get angry with them. We have to thank these players for their monumental effort since January 3rd.

"Today is the last time we are going to play a game without 72 hours' rest. We twice asked LaLiga to change it and nothing happened.

”We held out in the difficult moments: the start of the first and second halves. Then when we started to control the ball better, we looked for opportunities and both of Mbappé’s goals came in the first half. In the second half we wanted to counter-attack more."

Ancelotti also said: “I'm very proud of my players because it was a tricky game because of everything that happened with our rest period and also because of the strength of the opposition, they are a team that play very well. We held up physically, in the second half the team was exhausted but that was to be expected. This victory says a lot about the team and the attributes that this squad has."