Carlo Ancelotti Explains Why Liverpool Were Easier To Beat Than PSG, Chelsea And Manchester City

Carlo Ancelotti beat PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City on the way to the Champions League final, and he's revealed they were all harder victories than the one over Liverpool.

On Sunday, Ancelotti became the most successful manager in the Champions League era, by picking up his fourth winner's medal in the competition.

It was somewhat against the odds for Real Madrid this season, despite it being their 14th such title, with no one really expecting them to win, apart from Micah Richards.

The task was made all the more difficult by having to face PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City on the way to the final, three of the favourites for the whole thing, two of them being last year's finalists.

However they made it to Paris on Saturday and won 1-0, thanks to Vinicius Junior's second half goal and Thibaut Courtois' incredible goalkeeping display.

Despite Liverpool having nine shots on target to Real's one, the winner, Ancelotti revealed that he felt it was the easiest game they had in the knockout stages.

"Looking back, people said oh PSG were unlucky, Chelsea were unlucky, Manchester City were unlucky, this was practically the only game where people thought we were more or less on the same level," the Italian said.

Ancelotti celebrates in front of the Real fans. Image: Alamy

"I think it helped that Liverpool were easier to decipher than the others because they have a very clear identity and we could prepare the way that we did.

"We knew what strategy to take, don’t give them space behind the defence to run into.

"Perhaps our football wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful tonight on an aesthetic level, but playing out from the back to incentivise their pressing wasn’t a great idea.

"We had a few more long balls, then when their press in our half of the pitch lessened, we got to control the ball more especially in the second half."

Vinicius scores the only goal of the game. Image: Alamy

Whilst Ancelotti was explaining his view post match, Jurgen Klopp wasn't too impressed with what happened to his team against the Spanish champions.

The German was accused of being 'salty' over Real's tactical plan, having recently also been annoyed at Tottenham Hotspur for their tactics in a 1-1 draw in the Premier League.

Klopp claimed that something was "wrong" for Courtois to be man of the match in the final, saying his side had played a good game but 'not good enough.'

Topics: Champions League, Carlo Ancelotti, Liverpool, Real Madrid, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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