Real Madrid heads into today’s Derby against Atletico de Madrid with home-crowd advantage but a two-goal deficit in the scoreboard. Is that enough to count Madrid out of the competition in the Round of 16?
Carlo Ancelotti, the coach for “Los Merengues”, doesn’t think so. The Italian believes the task at hand is not easy but that his team has what it takes to make a comeback.
“We need an intense performance. It’s going to be an evenly matched game, like always,” Ancelotti said in a press conference.
Atletico was the last team that Real Madrid lost to before going into a 22-game winning streak snapped by Valencia almost four months later. After that, “Los Colchoneros” with a 2-0 victory over Madrid created a bigger wound. Since then, Diego Simeone and his team lost to Barcelona 3-1 in La Liga while his next opponent finally got a win against Espanyol (by 3-0).
Coming into today’s match at the “Santiago Bernabeu” the stats favor the visiting team. In the past 14 times Atletico has won the first leg by such score, they managed to retain the lead. Madrid fans may find some comfort in knowing their team has bounced back from such deficit but last time it happened was in 1993 when they were trailing Mallorca 0-2 and flipped it around 3-0 in the second 90 minutes.
If Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent “Ballon d‘Or” win is not enough motivation, the help could come from outside the pitch.
“I think the fans are going to help us. It’s going to be a fantastic atmosphere for us to play in,” Ancelotti emphasized.
Real Madrid is the current champion of this competition and today at 2:00 PM (EST) they will attempt to continue in the quest for a repeat.
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