Ancelotti: "This win brings us closer to winning the title"

Carlo Ancelotti appeared before the media in the press room at Son Moix and analysed the victory against Mallorca: "It was the kind of game we expected: complicated because Mallorca showed a lot of commitment, attitude and defended well. We weren't very good in the first half and played very slowly. The second half was much better. It's a very important victory, which brings us closer to winning the title. We're enjoying a good run and now we have to think about Wednesday, which we have enough time to recover for and we're going to give it our best shot."

"Every match is like a final. Having an advantage is very important before Sunday's game and that was the objective. We are very happy because winning here is always tricky. We did well because we played at a very high level in the second half."

LaLiga that Real Madrid are having
"The team has been very solid all the whole time. We've had a lot of continuity and solidity. We haven't always played well, but we have fought and battled every game and every minute. Everyone talks about the individual quality of the squad, but the more quality you have, the harder it is to look for commitment and so far we have found it."

The allocation of minutes at Son Moix
"I rested some players, but not because of any physical aspect. Everyone who has gone out has played well. Physically the team is very good, but if we win on Wednesday it won't be down to fitness, it'll be down to our attitude. Manchester City are a very strong team physically."

Tchouameni's game
"He played very well. It's his favourite position, he gets a lot of the ball playing there. It was an important game in this respect because they played a lot of balls with Muriqi and having a tall defensive midfielder helped us."

Enjoy all the videos from this game on RM Play

Militão
"It was a very demanding game because there were a lot of direct plays to the centre-forward, who is very good with his head. I was thinking of giving him more minutes, but the game was there and I put him on in the last few minutes to get a better defender in the air."

Missed chances
"When you don't score you often pay the price. Fortunately, that didn't happen because we were very solid overall. We have to avoid unnecessary losses because it's difficult to win the ball back. It's a very important aspect of football."

Vini Jr.
"It was a special atmosphere for him, but when he came on he was very dangerous. He was fresh and did very well. The boos were because of his success, it's only normal."

Will Rüdiger play in Manchester?
"He will play the second leg in Manchester. Yes".

His relationship with Javier Aguirre
"We were together at the World Cup in Russia and we had a great time. He's a great coach and talking about commitment I don't think there are many teams with more commitment than Mallorca and it's due to the great work of the coach".