Carlo Ancelotti insisted Real Madrid won’t have a specific plan to stop Erling Haaland as Manchester City haven’t changed their style.
- Haaland in great form for Man City
- Has scored 51 goals this season
- Ancelotti focused on “complete” Man City
WHAT HAPPENED? The Norwegian striker has been in incredible form and has had a record-breaking debut season in England, scoring 51 goals in 46 games which keeps Manchester City in the hunt for a historic treble. As the two European superpowers renew hostilities in the Champions League for the first time since the last edition’s semi-final heartbreak for the Premier League outfit, Real Madrid manager Ancelotti has claimed that he is preparing his side for an “unstoppable” Manchester City rather than focusing only on Haaland, who is an “obvious danger”.
WHAT THEY SAID: “Haaland is a very dangerous player. He’s an obvious danger. But only talking about Haaland means not talking about a complete team that plays well, that attacks, that has ideas. We aren’t planning how to play Haaland, but rather to play a team that looks unstoppable. I think we can have a chance to play an even, competitive game, and we can win,” he told reporters.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Ancelotti believes that City have not made wholesale changes to their style to accommodate Haaland but have now become more “complete” with the striker scoring goals regularly.
“What I can say is they’re a more complete team. They might play a bit more direct. They use more long balls because they have a tall forward [Haaland] and they have [Kevin] De Bruyne behind him. In a lot of games they’ve taken advantage of that, playing a long ball and winning the second ball. But that doesn’t mean the team has changed its style,” he continued.
WHAT NEXT? Real Madrid have their work cut out when they face Manchester City on Tuesday in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, as they will be without their first-choice centre-back Eder Militao, who remains suspended. The onus might, therefore, be on Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba to contain Haaland in the heart of the defence.
Source: Goal