After the Rayo game, Carlo Ancelotti admitted to questioning the referee's decision to book Cristiano Ronaldo for diving when Real Madrid were seemingly denied a stonewall spot-kick. "I told him that I thought it was incredible that he didn't award a penalty for a challenge like the one on Cristiano Ronaldo", the Italian stated in reference to the conversation he could be seen having with the match official at the final whistle. "I'm going away very happy because we showed the right attitude and played well in the second half, and were really sharp physically", he went on.
The 'Los Blancos' boss also explained the reasoning behind starting Isco on the bench: "Every match is a different story, I picked what I deemed the best line-up for this game. I felt James was able to make a good contribution to the team, like in his first appearance after coming back from injury, and I went for him, but the right line-up is different for every match and any given moment".
Ancelotti stressed that this call will have no bearing on his selection for the Champions League first leg at the Calderón: "They're two different teams, because Rayo build play from the back, so we planned to press high up the pitch. That didn't work so well in the first half, but it really paid off after half-time. We'll have to approach things differently, tactically speaking, against Atlético. They play long balls to exploit their forwards' quality".
The coach was full of praise for his charges' efforts in the 2-0 win in Vallecas, which keeps Real Madrid within four points of Barcelona. "It was a very intense match and we played with a lot of passion. The players were tired, I can't ask for any more", he remarked, adding: "Rayo's intensity dropped in the second half and I think ours went up a few notches. The team stayed very compact up top, we pressed and made really good use of the ball, unlike in the first half in which we rushed things trying to mount counterattacks".
Lastly, Ancelotti shed some light on Gareth Bale's fitness and explained why he took Karim Benzema off for the second game on the spin: "Bale recovered well from his knock and didn't have any problems. The idea behind substituting Benzema was to bring on a fourth midfielder so we could defend more calmly".
