Real Madrid doing well despite ‘absurd, unsustainable’ schedule: Ancelotti

MADRID: Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said Tuesday his team were doing a good job given their packed fixture list, describing the football calendar as “absurd” and “unsustainable”.

If Madrid progress as far as possible in the Champions League and Copa del Rey, as well as the Club World Cup in the summer, they could play 72 games this season. Madrid have already won the Intercontinental Cup and the European Super Cup, but lost against Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia.

“Taking into account the absurd calendar we have to deal with, that all teams have to, not just us, we´re doing very well,” Ancelotti told reporters. “All teams that are fighting and battling in these moments are doing very well, because it´s an unsustainable calendar.”

Los Blancos face Real Sociedad in a Copa del Rey semi-final first leg clash in the Basque country on Wednesday. “In the span of 52 days, tomorrow will be our 17th game,” continued Ancelotti. “If I look back to my time (as a player), in a season we´d play 30 league games, so we´d already be in the second half of the season.”