Ancelotti wants cool heads, Xavi anticipates war in Classico

Real Madrid will try to keep cool heads as they bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the Copa del Rey Clasico semi-final second leg, coach Carlo Ancelotti said Tuesday.

The Spanish champions visit arch-rivals Barcelona on Wednesday as they bid to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat in the derby.

Eder Militao’s own goal split the teams in the first leg in March as Madrid dominated but could not break down Barcelona’s solid defence.

“The idea is not to go crazy to try and score a goal,” said Madrid coach Ancelotti.

“The idea is to play a complete game, with and without the ball.

“We won’t go mad, because you can score a goal in the fifth minute and then let in two.”

Real Madrid have lost three consecutive Clasicos, defeated by Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final in January, the cup first leg and most recently 2-1 in La Liga at Camp Nou.

“Barca have beaten us the last three times, so I think now it’s our turn to win,” said Ancelotti.

The coach thought his team played well in the latter two games.

“We have to evaluate that in the last two games we have done well, we don’t just look at the results,” added Ancelotti.

“We we were close to winning the last match at the Camp Nou.”

The Italian coach confirmed defender Antonio Rudiger is fit, meaning Madrid have their full squad available aside from Ferland Mendy.

Ancelotti admitted it was difficult to choose between his midfielders, with Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga all vying to start.

“The hardest thing is to choose (who plays),” said Ancelotti.

“Not just today, always. The mentality of the players will not change, they want to play from the start, they don’t want to come on.

“It’s very hard to choose a side, because obviously there are more than 11 who deserve to play, there are 14 or 15.”

On the other hand, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez warned his team that Real Madrid would be coming to wage a “footballing war” at Camp Nou.

“It doesn’t mean anything that we have won the last three Clasicos, tomorrow (Thursday) is another footballing war,” Xavi told reporters.

“They will be out for revenge, they will come here hurt, they have lost the last three. They will come here wounded, I am sure.”

Barcelona will be without four injured key players in Pedri, Ousmane Dembele, Frenkie de Jong and Andreas Christensen.

“Madrid come tomorrow (Wednesday) and they can beat you perfectly well – they can against any team,” said Xavi.

“They have a lot of experience, they are used to mounting comebacks. They are still favourites for me.

“We were better in the league game and in the Super Cup, but we weren’t in the first leg.”

Xavi said he expected Los Blancos to try and stop his team controlling the match and playing their usual possession football.

“(I predict) an aggressive Madrid, who want to take the ball off us, pressing us,” added Xavi.

“We need to have a lot of personality tomorrow (Thursday) to keep the ball.”