Carlo Ancelotti was spotted having a bad reaction to one incident that took place during the first half of Manchester City’s Champions League match against Real Madrid.
After drawing 3-3 at the Santiago Bernabeu last week, the two sides met again for their second-leg quarter-final tie at the Etihad Stadium this evening.
During the first half of the game, the Real manager, who has a reputation for always being calm and cool-headed, was spotted being the absolute opposite after one particular incident took place.
After Dani Carvajal gave away a free-kick with a foul but stayed down on the pitch, City took the free-kick quickly and moved forward towards the Real goal while the defender was still on the ground.
Speaking on TNT Sports’ commentary in the first half, Steve McManaman said this about what he saw from Ancelotti in the aftermath of this incident
He said: “Carlo Ancelotti is going crazy on the touch line that Man City took the free kick quickly but they had every right to. It wasn’t a head injury.”
Bearing in mind how City scored their first goal of last week’s 3-3 draw with a clever free-kick from Bernardo Silva which managed to deceive the Real goalkeeper, perhaps this was why Ancelotti had such an animated reaction to this latest instance.
Or, it could have been due to the possibility of seeing Carvajal injured and the referee not bringing the game to a halt to make sure the right-back wasn’t seriously hurt.
While the Spaniard was able to continue through the remainder of the first half, the Real manager may now look back at this incident and feel surprised by his reaction, as well as being in the hope that his players know they can’t afford to switch off for even a moment against City.