Ancelotti Rejects Man City’s Underdog Tag

Carlo Ancelotti dismissed Pep Guardiola’s suggestion that Manchester City have a “one percent” chance of upsetting Real Madrid on Wednesday, stating the defending European champions have a little lead.

Real won 3-2 late on Manchester City at the Etihad last week in the first leg of their Champions League playoff, but Ancelotti warned his team not to get ahead of themselves as they chase a last 16 spot in front of their home fans.

“Honestly, not even (Guardiola) believes what he said, but I’m going to ask him about it before the game anyway,” the Italian joked in a Tuesday press conference.

“He doesn’t think they’ll advance, and neither do we think we’re 99 percent favorites. Our Manchester performance gives us a slight advantage, which we must use.

The psychological issue of learning to play with the advantage is difficult to handle. I could come here and say we have no advantage and will play like 0-0, but nobody would believe me.

“You can control the team’s mood and play the same game as a week ago since it worked well. You must remember your advantage.”

Carlo Ancelotti stated the Champions League had less problematic calls, but he still had issues with VAR after Real Madrid wrote a letter of complaint against LaLiga’s officials for unfair rulings.

I do (feel calmer); statistics show it. The Champions League VAR only intervenes when necessary, reducing controversy and intervention “Ancelotti remarked.

“The Champions League uses only the best referees from each country, thus the standard is great.

“The VAR has taken too much responsibility away from the referee, so I have doubts. The system is risky.

“VAR was introduced to prevent clear mistakes, not football-related interventions. For image, football is often stripped of its naturalness.”