"Any team can beat us, we don't feel invincible": Ancelotti on Real Madrid run
The Italian boss is aware that his team can't get over confident and complacent if they're to carry on their form
Carlo Ancelotti has Real Madrid flying high. Comfortable leaders of their Champions League group and alone at the top of La Liga, the Merengue outfit looks every bit invincible right now. However, the Italian coach knows there is no such thing in football.
"We don't feel invincible. In all of history there has been no invincible team. Any team can beat us: football is quality, but also commitment and attitude. Everything can determine a match", declared the Italian coach. Ancelotti is always making sure that his players don't grow overconfident: "The moment of difficulty will come and we will have to be ready to overcome it. It will arrive, I have no doubt. I don't know when he will do it, I'm not a magician, but we will have to do like last year and get over it".
With goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois fully recovered, the Merengue outfit will tackle their remaining fixtures of the first half of the season at full strength. While he knows that could very well not be the case come January, Don Carlo isn't worried about Qatar 2022. "If [the World Cup] is [an enemy], it is everyone's. All teams have players who will play it", he explained.
There was controversy over the week as despite having won the Spanish league and the Champions League, voters snubbed Real Madrid for the Club of the Year during the Ballon d'Or ceremony, but Ancelotti refused to get tangled in it. "I don't know the criteria well because they don't talk about a team because the best has been Real Madrid and their prize has been the Champions League", said Ancelotti, ignoring the debate, "All respect for an award that does not change anything for us, the most important award was received in May".
Carlo Ancelotti did, however, praise the work his team of players does on the pitch: "We are a team with an identity, that fights. We can improve many things collectively, but on an individual level it is difficult. We have to be thankful to their parents for their genetics".