JAKARTA - The el Clasico match, which brings together two Spanish La Liga giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona, is difficult to guess because they often create big scores. This was admitted by coach Carlo Ancelotti after bringing Madrid to the Spanish Super Cup final by eliminating Mallorca.
Madrid had to work hard against Mallorca, last season's Copa del Rey finalists and are now sixth in the La Liga standings. Madrid even met a deadlock for the first 45 minutes and could only score after the semifinal match lasted more than an hour.
Madrid finally won 3-0 in the semifinal duel which was held at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, Jeddah, Friday, January 10, 2025 in the morning WIB. The success led Los Merengues to meet Barca who won 2-0 over Copa del Rey Athletic Bilbao in the previous semifinal match.
The final match which presented el Clasico as well as last season's final repeat will still be held in Jeddah, Monday, January 13, 2025 in the morning WIB. Ancelotti admitted that it was not easy to overcome Barca and said that el Clasico was indeed difficult to guess.
Moreover, the Blaugrana was again strengthened by two pillar players, Dani Olmo and Pau Victor, who previously failed to register because the club was unable to meet LaLiga's requirements regarding player salary restrictions.
"El Clasico is difficult to guess lately," said Ancelotti as quoted by Forbes.
"In previous matches, we could have won easily. For example, we won 4-1 in the Spanish Super Cup final last season. We also won twice with a score of 4-0 in La Liga. But while playing at the Santiago Bernabeu this season, Barca beat us 4-0," he said.
"This makes it difficult to predict how the next match will be. What is clear is that the match will be very entertaining because of the quality of the two teams in the arena. We certainly hope to reap better results than Barca," said the former AC Milan and Juventus coach.
In that semifinal match, Madrid had to work hard against Mallorca's insistence game. Midfielder Jude Bellingham finally broke the deadlock after an hour of the match. The England national team players managed to break into the opponent's goal after Rodrygo and Kylian Mbappe failed to complete their chances.
Rodrygo's shot still hit the post and then Mbappe tried to maximize the rebound ball. But goalkeeper Dominik Greif was still able to block the ball from rebounding again. Bellingham finally managed to use the wild ball to score.
Madrid finally increased their advantage due to an own goal by Mallorca defender Martin Valjent in the 90+3 minute. Meanwhile, another goal was produced by Rodrygo towards the end of injury time. Madrid also closed the match with a three-goal advantage.
"We actually played well. It's just that we struggled to score in the early minutes of the game and even throughout the first half," Ancelotti said in response to a game that was not easy for Los Blancos.
"Even though we started well, we still had difficulties. Moreover, Mallorca played according to their strategy design. The opponent defended very well and did not give us space. They also tried to take advantage of opportunities through cross balls. It must be admitted that they often made it difficult for us," said the man who once handled Chelsea and Everton.
The match itself was marked by a commotion of players from both teams after the final whistle sounded. Defender Pablo Maffeo, who has been seen repeatedly provoking forward Vinicius Junior, was in tension with Bellingham after the match.
Ancelotti and Raul Asencio tried to separate them. Ancelotti said that the commotion really didn't need to happen. After all, the match is over.
"I don't blame anyone, whether it's Malloca or Real Madrid players. However, the commotion was really unnecessary. The players were indeed provoked by emotion and I tried to calm them down. Everything ended peacefully and nothing happened. However, that is the unnecessary end of a match," he said.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
