Real Madrid ´deserved more´ from derby, says Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti believes Real Madrid “deserved more” after fighting back to win a point in a 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid in LaLiga on Saturday.

Julian Alvarez gave Atletico the lead in the first half from the penalty spot, a decision Ancelotti claims “affected the team”, before Kylian Mbappe rescued the point five minutes after the break.

It is the third consecutive Madrid derby in all competitions that has ended in a draw, the most since a run of five between November 1978 and January 1980.

After a sluggish first half that saw Los Blancos fail to get any of their seven shots on target, they had 16 attempts in the second, registering nine on target, while Jude Bellingham also hit the woodwork.

“I think we deserved more. It was a very good game in the second half,” Ancelotti said in a press conference.

“The first half was totally different. Slower. We came out with good feelings, especially in the second half. The penalty situation affected the team. We played too slowly before.

“In the second half, we took advantage of the width of the field. Vini [Vinicius Junior] and Rodry [Rodrygo] created a lot of danger from the outside.

“It was a close, competitive match. As I said, we came out of the match with a draw but encouraged. The team was good in the second half.”

There was controversy in the build-up to the derby after Madrid lodged a letter of complaint against LaLiga’s match officials.

During the game, Atletico were given a penalty for a foul by Aurelien Tchouameni on Samuel Lino, which was awarded following a VAR review. However, Ancelotti refused to go into detail on the decision.

“The VAR blew the whistle for the penalty,” he said when asked about the decision. “The referee was very close and saw it clearly.

“I saw that the VAR whistled a similar penalty in Athletic Bilbao against Girona. The people of football do not understand this.

“I don’t want to get into the controversy. I prefer to talk about the match. We came out of the game with a draw, encouraged. The team was good, especially in the second half.”

Madrid stayed top of LaLiga with the draw, remaining one point ahead of Atletico.

After Saturday’s game, the Opta supercomputer gives Madrid a 55.3% chance of winning the title, compared to 21.8% for Atleti and 22.5% for Barcelona.