The problems with the translation delayed, minimally, Hansi Flick’s appearance. “There is noise,” the German technician complained, while the audio from his headphones continued playing. He had already removed one of them and was looking to answer the next question. In reality, more than answering, I wanted to avoid her. More uncomfortable, substantially more tense than usual, the Barcelona coach advanced the press conference in Jeddah, ahead of the final against Real Madrid. It wasn’t time that pressed him: it was the noise.
“The noise from outside is too loud,” he said when asked about the substitution of Iñaki Peña, who was on the bench against Mallorca for arriving late for a technical talk, a punishment that other teammates of the goalkeeper had already suffered, such as Héctor Fort and Jules Koundé. “In Spain there may be a different mentality, but I must explain this. They are professionals. They have to arrive on time. This is the third time it has happened [en la plantilla] and I had no other option. You can arrive earlier, it is not a problem,” continued the Barça coach. The coach is uncomfortable having to make public internal organizational issues. However, he is much more bothered by the setback suffered by Barcelona with the signing of Dani Olmo, a turning point in his perception of the management of the management team.
Then, faced with the question about Olmo, the noise returned to the press room of the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium. “When there is a lot of noise outside, we have to be stronger,” the coach began when Olmo’s name appeared in his appearance. He then added: “For us it is a great season. We have games in which we have not achieved what we wanted, but it is very good to learn from each game. You can see that the team played against Athletic for their two teammates and for the club. “That’s what we want.” What Flick wanted was not to talk about Dani Olmo. Actually, I didn’t want to talk in general.
Carlo Ancelotti, on the other hand, seemed relaxed. Oblivious to the clock and the possible awkward questions, he even joked. “So far it has been a very calm press conference. Don’t ruin it,” the Italian coach said with a laugh. He was also asked about Iñaki Peña’s substitution: “The schedule is something important. The players have to be disciplined,” he responded, as well as about the possible presence of Dani Olmo on Sunday, after Barcelona received a precautionary measure to achieve the registration of the Catalan and Pau Víctor. “What would happen if Olmo is the protagonist of the classic?” they asked him. “It would happen that we have not been able to stop a very good player. Dani Olmo is going to play and we have to try to minimize his quality,” he resolved.
A calm Ancelotti, just as impassive when asked about the vicissitudes, as when he was questioned about Gil Manzano, referee of the classic. An issue that the coach linked to the Real Madrid TV videos. “Gil Manzano is a good referee, with experience. He has directed many important games. And Real Madrid has that same opinion,” concluded the coach.
This Sunday will be Ancelotti’s 17th classic, with a balance of nine wins and eight losses, the last 0-4 at the Bernabéu. “We made a pretty clear evaluation. We started well and went down in the second half. We must avoid the mistakes we made. A classic is always a classic, even more so if it is a final. Playing against Barcelona is always something special,” Ancelotti commented. And Flick countered: “We played against one of the best teams in the world. But we are capable of winning. We can play better than we did against Athletic. We made many mistakes and we must reduce them. Madrid is one of the best in transition, and we have to take care of that.”
From Ancelotti’s jokes to Flick’s noise, Madrid and Barcelona meet in a classic surrounded by the Olmo case, which, for now, does not bother Real Madrid, unlike what Athletic, Atlético, Espanyol, Valencia, Valladolid and Las Palmas.
