In his press conference after Real Madrid’s 3-2 loss to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final, Carlo Ancelotti refused to talk about the refereeing team that had been the cause of controversy in the buildup to the match.
Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, the Basque official in charge of the fixture, broke down in tears on Friday as he revealed the mocking his child suffers at school as a result of Real Madrid TV’s continued ‘analysis’ of referees, which sparked outrage amongst high-ranking officials at the club. Rumours suggested that los Blancos had considered boycotting the final, though these were vehemently denied in a press release.
To the neutral eye, the 39-year-old performed well on Saturday but found himself in the spotlight deep into extra time, as he dished out a flurry of red cards to players and staff on the Real Madrid bench after objects were thrown onto the pitch by Antonio Rüdiger and his teammates.
The German defender and Lucas Vazquez were both dismissed, with Jude Bellingham also shown red by the referee.
“I don’t want to talk about the referee,” Ancelotti insisted, though he admitted that “I’ll have to see what happened [with the third red card, shown to Bellingham] because I don’t know. We’ll have to wait now.”
Controversy aside, the Real Madrid boss was content with how his side fought back from behind to snatch the lead at La Cartuja before Ferran Torres restored parity.
“It was a good came and we competed well. The first half was more complicated, but we were better in the second half. The match was under control,” he assessed, noting that “the team were close to winning but we’ve got to keep fighting. I’ve got nothing to be disappointed with the team for. If we won, it wouldn’t have been a scandal because in the second half, we were better than our opponents.”
“It wasn’t simple because when they have energy, they press very well,” Ancelotti said of Barça’s relentless press, “but when the tempo of the press dropped, we managed the ball better and we played very well in the second half.”
Part of that improvement after the break can be attributed to the introduction of Kylian Mbappé, who “came into the game well, scored the equaliser and had so many chances.”
“I preferred to put him on in the second half when the tempo dropped a little,” Ancelotti revealed, explaining that the French forward “couldn’t cope with 90 minutes and that’s why I preferred to put him on in the second half.”
Los Blancos return to LaLiga action next Sunday when they host Celta Vigo at 13:00 BST [14:00 CEST].