Ancelotti: "I don't want to talk about football, it's very complicated"

CArlo Ancelotti broke with the usual routine Champions League press conferences and was the first to present himself at Valdebebas, before Lucas Vazquez. And he did it to send a message of encouragement to Valencia even before receiving questions.

Initial message to Valencia: “It's been a week since this tragedy happened, we have sadness… that's the emotion we have, we are very close to all the people who were affected. I hope this can be resolved soon and in this sense I hope you I can understand, talking about football is very complicated We are part of this country and all this affects us a lot out of respect for you and also not to disrespect the. people, I'll try to keep it simple because I don't want to talk about. football. For me, tomorrow is a very special match… but I will try to talk as little as possible.”

“It affects everyone because you hear, you read… and what happened is something terrible. We prepared for it because we are professionals and we are obviously going to try to win it. C 'is what we have to do.'

“Everyone was clear. Nobody wanted to play. It seemed like the right decision to me. But we're not the ones in charge. It's the people at the top who make that decision.”

Did football miss a great opportunity to stop and help? “There are many ways to help, I think this is different. Football had to stop and then football can and must help.”

“What does it feel like?” : “The feeling is to talk as little as possible about football. As I said, it's our job. We have an important and special match against Milan, but behind the scenes.”

Reflection: “What I think is that football is a party, but you can do it when you are well. If your family is well, then you celebrate. But when people are not well, you don't You don't have to have parties. Football has to stop because football is the most important thing… of the least important things in life.”

Best Coach Award: “I'm happy, the Ballon d'Or has already passed, for me it was June 1 with the Champions League, and we must congratulate all the winners.”

“I can't rate it, I have to do my best to try to help.”

“Obviously what happened is normal and they are frustrated. Here I don't want to comment or evaluate what politics has done this week. I don't have the resources, only the sadness of seeing so many people We are in 2024 with all the information we have in the world… and we are not capable of repairing these kinds of tragedies.

How did the group experience this whole week? : “It's been a difficult week because the atmosphere is not normal… but nothing to do with the Ballon d'Or. The sadness and the different atmosphere are due to what is happening in Spain.”

“Vinicius is sad like us, but not because of the Ballon d'Or, but because of what he sees in Valencia.”

“Politics is a very complicated subject, not only here in Spain. To give an opinion on this, who is to blame? I don't know, but I know that yesterday's frustration comes from people who lost everything.”

Forcing footballers to take a break: “No, the power we have is zero. We can't make any decisions. All the coaches had the same idea, but they had to do it reluctantly.”