Ancelotti: “If we had won, it wouldn't have been a scandal.”

Carlo Ancelotti appeared at a press conference after the final, saddened but not overly upset by the defeat and without the slightest self-criticism for the first-half approach. The Italian went out of his way to praise his players. "I have nothing to reproach my players for. I'm hurt not being able to lift the Cup, but there's nothing to reproach them for because we played the game we had to play."

The coach explained the defeat this way: “It was a worthy defeat and a good match. We competed well. We had it under control, but they came after us with a ball behind us and it got complicated. We were very close. We have to keep fighting and struggling. We competed very well. If we had won, it wouldn't have been a scandal, since in the second half, we were closer to winning than our opponent,” he stated.

Ancelotti also commented on his most controversial decision, not starting Mbappé: "He didn't get 90 minutes (he was coming off an injury), and that's why I brought him on in the second half, when the pace dropped. He was very good, scored the equalizer, and had his chances."

Mbappé “I wasn’t fit to play 90 minutes”

The Madrid coach declined to comment on his future: "I can continue or I can stop, but that will be a matter for the coming weeks, not today."

He also didn't comment on the incidents at the end, when two players, Lucas Vázquez and Rüdiger, were shown cards. The German became very excited after throwing an ice cube at De Burgos Bengoechea: "I don't know what happened, but what I can say is that Rüdiger played a fantastic game. He held out as long as he could, but he was very tired at the end. He wasn't injured, he was very tired and couldn't run anymore," he concluded.

Ancelotti commented on what he had said to his players in the locker room at halftime: " Barça defended well. It's not easy to withstand their pressure. It's complicated. When they eased off the pressure a bit, we managed the game better."

He then spoke about Koundé's goal: "It went a bit wrong, because Brahim thought Modric was going to put the ball behind him. Sometimes those little details... can be very costly."

The expulsions “I don’t know what happened”

What Ancelotti didn't want to talk about was the referees' work. He was blunt and serious: "I don't want to talk about the referee." He then declined to delve further into the subject of those sent off: "I don't know what happened with the third red card. We'll have to see what happened, and I don't know. Now we have to wait. We're going to rest for two days to prepare for the matches against Celta Vigo and Barcelona at the end of the La Liga season," he concluded.

No Real Madrid player wanted to speak after the match, something that tends to happen frequently in major defeats and already happened this season after Arsenal's Champions League exit at the Bernabéu.

Some of the Real Madrid players left the field in tears, with Courtois appearing to be the most affected.