Carlo Ancelotti explains reasons behind damaging 4-0 defeat in El Clasico

Carlo Ancelotti claimed Real Madrid didn’t deserve to be beaten so heavily by Barcelona in El Clasico on Saturday night and gave a reminder of his own team’s previous successes despite the heavy defeat.

Barcelona strolled to their first away win at the Bernabeu since 2022 as two Robert Lewandowski strikes stunned the home crowd. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha added two more goals to make the scoreline a truly damaging one for Madrid, who are now six points behind their bitter rivals in the La Liga title race.

It means Los Blancos have plenty of work to do to overturn the deficit in their title defence, but Ancelotti was quick to defend his players and highlighted their difficult route to glory in the past.

He said in his post-match press conference: “The result doesn’t reflect what happened. They deserved to win but it was a close game until the first goal.

“We have to learn from this. Self-criticism is fundamental. But we don’t throw everything in the bin – our first half was good.

“The last time we lost 4-0 at home to Barcelona we won La Liga and the Champions League. We won’t stop fighting.”

Madrid have failed to truly click into gear despite adding Kylian Mbappe to their squad during the summer, needing a second-half revival to beat Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek.

No comeback was ever on the cards on Saturday night, with Barca looking more likely to add to their four goals than Madrid were to cut the deficit.

Mbappe struggled on his debut in El Clasico, straying offside a whopping eight times, while Vinicius Junior spurned an excellent chance in the first half and became subdued in the second.