Ancelotti: "The lack of balance was key"

Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media in the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu after the LaLiga matchday 28 game against Villarreal. The coach analysed the game: "We struggled to win the ball back. We tried to win it back in the opposition half, but we lacked balance and that's why we conceded three goals. Villarreal play very well with the ball and they force you out of position. We took the lead twice, but we weren't able to score a third and we lost the game. The lack of balance was key.

"We didn't deserve to lose although we could have played much better. Physically the team is fine and, having so many chances, we didn't really deserve to lose but we lacked the balance we've had in recent games. We took the lead on two occasions and should have been more consistent. Our level in the league has dropped compared to last year."

The league
"We're not going to let our guard down. That won't happen. There are 10 games left and we're going to fight every game to get as many points as possible."

Motivation for the match
"Preparing for a game between two matches that are much more important is complicated, especially in terms of motivation. Today we didn't have balance and we didn't play as a team."

On playing with four forwards
"Balance is very important, but sometimes you approach a game in a way that you don't have a lot of balance, considering the pros and cons. We wanted to open the game up, but we struggled a lot the recover the ball today. They were playing balls in between the lines and getting in behind us. If I put four forwards on it's because I don't think balance was the most important thing. If I was thinking about balance, I'd have tried to control things more in midfield”.

The referee
“Repeated fouling is a yellow card and I protested because you can’t show a yellow after nine fouls”.

The first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea
“With regard to the Champions League, this defeat won’t affect our confidence for Wednesday's game, which will be different. I may use the same eleven from the Camp Nou. Today I rotated a lot of players because the match against Barcelona took a lot out of us physically and mentally”.

Tchouameni
“Everyone was below par today. It was difficult to maintain 100% motivation after the Barcelona game. It's fairly normal. This defeat hurts. I don't like to talk about individuals because only a few players were on top of their game today”.