Real Madrid Coach Carlo Ancelotti has responded to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s comments that the Allianz Arena will resemble hell for his side.
Madrid and Bayern Munich face each other in next Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg, with Los Blancos holding a 1-0 lead from the first meeting at the Bernabeu.
The Italian tactician, referring to the Bayern general director’s words, expressed his hope that the coming of hell would instead be postponed by one day to next Wednesday.
“I am not thinking about the second leg,” Ancelotti told the Press today. “My mind is on Osasuna. We won’t be changing a lot of things for the match on Tuesday.
“I hope that hell comes for them on Wednesday, once we have left!
“We need to recover our energy now and have concentration, because we are in the fight for the League.
“The aim is to win all our matches. It won’t be easy because we gave a lot against Bayern.
“We need to come back though. Physically we are not at 100 per cent at the moment.”
Ancelotti then fielded questions on several of his players, as well as Pep Guardiola and the seriously ill Tito Vilanova.
“Ronaldo finished the match on Wednesday well and he needs to play. He will start tomorrow.
“We have doubts about Karim Benzema and also Pepe. The team will change a little bit, but not much because the Osasuna match is important.
“If Benzema has problems I will turn to Morata, who is going through a good period and has scored when he has played.
“Kheidra is doing very well. He is training with the team and doing extra work. He is ready to come back but I can’t say when. He could play before the end of the season.
“Bale is still a bit of a doubt. Tomorrow we will make a decision on him.
“I like Guardiola a lot. He has brought new things to football and created a style at Barcelona.
“He is now trying to impose it on Bayern, though it will be more difficult to do there. The team has the identity of its Coach. His work is very good.
“We are all worried about Tito Vilanova. We are thinking about him a lot. We hope that everything turns out well for him.”
Finally, Ancelotti made his position clear when asked whether he was interested in the vacant Manchester United job.
“Every year this sort of thing happens and I always say the same thing. I am happy here, I have the fortune to work for the biggest club in the world.
“I respect Manchester United but I will continue here.”
