Real Madrid head coach Ancelotti criticizes Barcelona’s celebration after their Clásico defeat

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was unhappy with the way Barcelona’s bench celebrated their fourth goal after his side lost 4-0 in the Clasico at the Santiago Bernabéu on Saturday.

Robert Lewandowski scored twice, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha also scored and Barça ended Madrid’s 42-match unbeaten run in LaLiga and moved six points clear of them at the top of the table.

The celebration after Raphinha’s fourth goal, Raphinha’s 10th of the season, poured out from the Madrid bench as Ancelotti took on Barça coach Hansi Flick. However, Ancelotti said his problem was due to the behavior of one of Flick’s assistants.

“(The problem) was with the assistant, not with Flick,” Ancelotti said in his post-match press conference when asked to clarify what happened. “The assistant was not a gentleman with the way he celebrated in front of the bench. And Flick proved us right.”

When asked about the incident in his press conference, Flick said: “I didn’t see it. I was just talking to Carlo and it was something… it’s normal in this situation, when you celebrate a goal, maybe it’s not… we’re old enough to talk about it.”

Madrid had won the last four Clásicos in all competitions and had they not lost here, they would have matched Barça’s LaLiga record unbeaten streak of 43 games.

However, after a goalless first half, they collapsed after the break.

Lewandowski scored twice in three minutes, taking his tally in all competitions to 17 goals this season. Then Yamal, who became the youngest Clásico goalscorer at the age of 17, and Raphinha completed the defeat.

“It was an even game until the goal,” said Ancelotti. “We had chances and could have scored, but we weren’t determined. If they score, it takes some energy away from us and it becomes another game. They did a lot of damage on the counterattack.”

“I liked the first half, we have to follow this line. We don’t have to throw everything away, we just have to forget the last 30 minutes. We mustn’t give up, we just have to learn. We found out. We made good on the last defeat against Atlético Madrid last season and I’m sure we will do better.

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Burley describes Real Madrid’s second-half collapse as ‘diabolical’

Craig Burley reports on a nightmarish second half for Real Madrid as they suffered a 4-0 defeat to Barcelona in the El Clasico.

It was a tough start to the Clásico for Kylian Mbappé, as he had two goals disallowed for offside and missed numerous chances.

In total, Mbappé was caught offside eight times – the most in a LaLiga game in the past 15 seasons Los Blancoswho had a total of 12 offsides, struggled to get behind Barça’s high line.

“We took risks with his position,” Ancelotti added of Mbappé’s performance. “They have a high line and because of the good deficit we couldn’t take advantage of it. He also had three or four chances and didn’t take them when we needed something more.”

“The result does not reflect what happened on the pitch. Barça took the lead and the resulting confidence changed the game. We took risks and they are a team in good form who were dangerous on the counterattack. The defeat worries me.” But we have to recover quickly. This season we won’t be that far away from what we did last season.

The result capped a remarkable week for Barça, just four days after they beat Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League.

Under Flick they have now won 12 of 14 games across all competitions, but the German coach didn’t get carried away.

“We’re starting the journey and we’re doing really well,” he said. “As I always say, we have to improve things and we are doing that, but today it wasn’t easy. We continue with our idea, we have a flow at the moment and we have to keep going.”

“I have always said that I am really happy to work for Barça and also to live in Barcelona. It’s a great job, it’s a new part of my life and it feels really good. Today we played a fantastic game and I’m really proud of the team. And it’s also very important how we play.

“This will give the players more confidence. The cheering in the locker room was nice to see. Now we have a recovery day, then I give the players two days off and then the focus is on Espanyol next weekend.”