Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti praised his players’ performance in their 3-1 victory over Stuttgart on Tuesday evening, in the first round of the Champions League, at the Merengue’s home ground, the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real Madrid’s goals were scored by Kylian Mbappe, Antonio Rudiger and Endrick in the 46th, 83rd and 90+5th minutes, while Stuttgart’s only goal was scored by Deniz Undav in the 68th minute.
Ancelotti said in statements reported by the Spanish newspaper “Mundo Deportivo”: “The main headline tonight could be: Real Madrid won the first match in this new Champions League format, and nothing more.”
He added: “We are still looking for the best version of ourselves, and in some moments we performed well.”
He added: “When we scored the goal, the match could have ended, but after the draw we showed the strength needed to win a very important match.”
On Endrick, he commented: “Endrick has great courage. It was a counterattack and he had the audacity to shoot and score.”
He continued: “It was the last ball of the game, and the best option would have been to pass, but he did a great job. I didn’t expect him to do that, but he has this talent. He is very effective.”
He continued: “You have to choose between building the play or playing directly. If we had relied on building the play, we wouldn’t have scored the first goal.”
He added: “There are moments when you need to control and others when you need to play directly because we have very fast strikers.”
Regarding the differences between his current team and last season’s team, he replied: “We won the first match last season against Union Berlin in the last minute, so this is nothing new.”
He stressed: “If there are those who think that we will not struggle to win matches, they are wrong.”
With this victory, Real Madrid collects its first 3 points, occupying fourth place, for the league stage, while Stuttgart comes in 32nd place without points.