Real Madrid believe in PSG comeback after ‘best performance of the season’

Euan McTear

6 Mar 2022 03:00 CST
3 min read

Benzema and Vinicius celebrate a Real Madrid goal in a LaLiga match vs Athletic. — © ProShots

Real Madrid responded to an early Mikel Oyarzabal penalty to thrash Real Sociedad 4-1 on Saturday night, putting together an excellent performance, especially over the final hour of the game. In addition to the four goals scored, there were two others disallowed for marginal offsides, so Los Blancos look to be hitting form at the right time, ahead of their Champions League last 16 second leg against PSG on Wednesday.

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Discussing the display afterwards, coach Carlo Ancelotti stated: “It was a good match and we played very well, pressing a lot. It was an almost perfect game. It was a good team performance with good and aggressive individual performances too. It might have been our best performance of the season.”

The win vs Real Sociedad might have been our best performance of the season.

- Carlo Ancelotti

He continued: “I think all Real Madrid fans believe in the comeback even more after this. It was an important match for LaLiga first and foremost, but it now gives us even more confidence. We have to have that same intensity. I think we can repeat this performance.”

Real Madrid’s pressing

If Real Madrid are to defeat PSG then they’ll have to win the ball back and preferably in good positions. To achieve this, Ancelotti and his staff have been working on the team’s pressing in the weeks since the first leg, something he has openly discussed in press conferences.

On Saturday, he said of the successful pressing against Real Sociedad that: “This was our plan, to press a bit higher, and it worked. By executing it well tonight, we have a better chance of being able to do that on Wednesday.”

👔 @MrAncelotti: "We played really well from the beginning. The plan was to press up front, to stop Real Sociedad building attacks from the area. It worked. The physical effort was huge, we did well. If we play like this on Wednesday we have a bigger chance of going through." pic.twitter.com/78Bi63sSJW
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) March 5, 2022

The match on Wednesday kicks off at 21:00 CET, the local time in Spain, and the fans are excited as they hope Real Madrid can turn around the 1-0 deficit. Tickets sold out before they even reached general sale and the supporters in the Bernabéu stayed behind after Saturday’s victory to further encourage the squad with the chants of “yes we can”.