Real Madrid: everyone is watching Ancelotti

Real Madrid hosts Celta Vigo this afternoon at the Santiago Bernabéu with all eyes on Carlo Ancelotti and the future of the Whites' dugout. The official line is to continue fighting for La Liga as long as possible (and that means winning today and next Sunday in the Montjuïc derby), but the reality is that Madrid is already working primarily on planning for next season and trying to avoid the mistakes they made this one.

Ancelotti seems concerned and serious. He's not the usual Ancelotti. His appearances are shorter, and he clearly seems to be living out his final days at the club, the end of three years in which there have been more ups and downs (two Champions League titles and two La Liga titles), but which aren't ending in the best possible way.

Ancelotti's press conferences have become a single topic: asking him about his future, but the Italian is a pain in the ass who refuses to give any clues about what's going to happen: "Out of respect for the club, I'll talk about this on May 25, not before." May 25 is the final matchday of La Liga, and Madrid hosts Real Sociedad at the Bernabéu. The Club World Cup starts on June 14. Unless Madrid pulls off a surprise and ends up lifting the title, it's quite unrealistic to think that the Italian will manage the team in the World Cup in the United States. Santiago Solari seems to be the chosen one.

The cup final Very bad taste in the mouth

Ancelotti admits the Copa del Rey left a very bad taste in their mouths, but he also maintained that the team can win the five remaining matches and is taking refuge in calls for an epic victory: "We're only thinking about the present, the next matches, where we can fight, and what we're going to do is fight for the League until the last second of the last match. We're focused on this and don't think about anything else. We've had a lot of injuries, a lot of difficulties, but we're convinced we can put a good team together and win the game against Celta and the Clásico, which will be very important and gives us the opportunity to fight even harder for this competition," said Carlo Ancelotti at Valdebebas.

For today's match, the difficulties are primarily in the defensive line. Carvajal and Militão remain out long-term, and Rüdiger and Alaba underwent surgery this week. Mendy and Camavinga are also injured. The normal approach is to use Asencio and Tchouaméni at center-back. Two players from the reserve team have been included in the squad: Jacobo Ramón and Yusi. Also in the squad is Vallejo, who has only played a few minutes. Yesterday afternoon, Madrid suffered a new complication. Rodrygo was dropped from the squad due to a cold. Everything points to Brahim playing.

The Celta With the memory of his controversial elimination

Celta arrives at the Bernabéu fired up by the memory of their Copa del Rey quarter-final exit, thanks to Lunin's clear penalty on Swedberg before Mbappé made it 1-0, as well as a handball by Rüdiger and a possible red card for Brazilian Endrick, who would later score two goals in extra time.

Celta's coach, Claudio Giráldez, declined to comment on that yesterday: "The only thing we know is that to win, we have to be perfect and more faithful than ever to our style of play," he stated.