No worries for Madrid after Copa del Rey draw
Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti said he was not overly concerned by his side's 0-0 Copa del Rey draw to third-tier club Olimpic De Xativa.
The La Liga powerhouse could not break down the Segunda B side on the latter's artificial Estadio La Murta turf, and only produced one on-target shot in the first half - a tame Casemiro header that was easily dealt with by the hosts.
But despite their lacklustre effort, Ancelotti was confident of scoring when the minnows visit the Bernabeu on December 18.
"I'm not worried that we didn't score, this team scores a lot of goals, and we will try and score in our next game," he said.
"We played well in defence, we had balance and I don't think we played badly. I go home satisfied."
Angel di Maria has been at the centre of transfer talk, with Monaco reportedly looming for the services of the Argentine.
And after the winger was substituted on 58 minutes in Xativa, Ancelotti downplayed the speculation that Di Maria was becoming out of favour.
"He asked me to take him off because he was feeling discomfort in his calf," the Italian boss said.
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"At half-time I asked him to keep going for another 10 minutes so that (Karim) Benzema could warm up and then I substituted him.
"He hasn't spoken about his future, he is happy and he's going to stay at Real Madrid."
Ancelotti said Xativa's structure helped them deny their star-studded opponents, while also claiming the pitch did the visitors no favours either.
"They defended well, they were compact and very organised," Ancelotti said.
"Clearly, the pitch made things harder for us, we aren't used to it and it didn't help us."