Ancelotti hails ´fantastic year´

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti reflected on his side’s “fantastic” 2014 after a 4-2 friendly defeat to Milan in Dubai on Tuesday.

Ancelotti led Real to UEFA Champions League and Club World Cup glory this year, with victory in the final of the latter competition extending the club’s winning streak to a remarkable 22 matches.

Although Real were unable to record yet another victory in their mid-season friendly with Milan, Ancelotti was unconcerned by the loss to one of his former clubs.

“After a week-long break we needed a game like this,” he said.

“The defeat does not bother us at all and on a technical level the team was good. Now we have to rest up and then prepare for the [Liga] game against Valencia [on Sunday].

“Milan played well, we didn’t, but you can’t say that this will affect the work we have already done.

“After the break we needed a match like this in order to prepare for Sunday. We are really happy to put an end to a fantastic year.

“We also received good news from Valdebebas [Real’s training complex], where Marcelo was able to train and tonight we didn’t have any injury problems.”

Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema were on target for Real against Milan, but Stephan El Shaarawy scored twice to help the Italian side to victory.