Carlo Ancelotti insists Real Madrid will maintain their fighting spirit, despite watching a 22-game winning streak come to an end against Valencia on Sunday.
Valencia came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win at Mestalla, leaving Ancelotti’s side just a point ahead of title rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
“I don’t think it will affect the team,” the Italian boss said. “As I said it has happened after 22 victories.
“The season is very long and we are well-positioned in La Liga and have a lot of competitions. This won’t affect us because we know all the things we have done well until now.”
After ending 2014 on a high winning four trophies in the same year for the first time, the defeat in their first match of 2015 bore down to hard luck and the manager calls for a quick response in Wednesday’s visit to Atletico in the Copa del Rey.
Cristiano Ronaldo had fired the Los Blancos into an early lead from the penalty spot, but Ancelotti was left to bemoan key missed chances by the Portuguese and Gareth Bale either side of Antonio Barragan’s equaliser for Valencia as Nicolas Otamendi headed home the winner 25 minutes from time.
Ancelotti explained: “I don’t think we deserved to lose because we just didn’t have the luck to score when we had the chances to make it 2-0, then to go ahead 2-1 and finally at the end when we had many chances to make it 2-2. There were important points of the match where we didn’t take our chances, but as I’ve said in football this happens. You can’t always be efficient up front. I think we worked hard and had chances. We were always dangerous but we didn’t score.
“We knew what the schedule would be and that Valencia are a strong team, above all this year. We prepared well for the game and we played well. We congratulate Valencia, who played well, and now we have to prepare for the next game. For the game on Wednesday we need to think how to play better to win the game. I think physically the team showed it is in good shape, especially in the final part of the game.”
