Real Madrid secured a very important victory over Villarreal on Saturday, but the club has been far from happy in the aftermath of this. Specifically, there has been a lot of unhappiness surrounding the decision for the match to be played when it was, considering that Los Blancos were in Champions League action against Atletico Madrid only three days prior.
After the match at La Ceramica, Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti expressed his anger and frustration in regards to the situation, and he claimed that the club had asked for the fixture to be moved to allow for his players to rest more after playing 120 minutes at the Metropolitano on Wednesday.
However, these claims made by Ancelotti have now been rejected by La Liga themselves, who have told Marca that Real Madrid have never requested for their match against Villarreal to be moved.
This is not the first issue that Real Madrid have butted heads with authorities over, but La Liga are clear that they have gone little wrong as per their guidelines, and also the rules of the Spanish Football Federation.
Ancelotti stated that he would threatened to withdrawn his Real Madrid from the La Liga match if his scenario was repeated in the future, but for now, it is not expected to happen again this season. Their Champions League quarter-final tie against Arsenal is one of the “long” ties scheduled by UEFA, meaning that there is an eight-day gap between the two legs, whereas Barcelona’s match-up against Borussia Dortmund has only six days – and as a result, they will have to deal with the same situation as Real Madrid have had to this weekend.
