Real Madrid just defeated Villarreal 2-1 in the match of round 28 of La Liga. Since the end of the round of 16 of the Champions League against Atletico in midweek, Los Blancos have only had 67 hours of rest to welcome the "Golden Submarine".
After the Madrid Derby ended, Real Madrid contacted the La Liga organizers twice to request a change of match time for the match against Villarreal. However, this request of Carlo Ancelotti's team was not met. After seeing the players collapse onto the pitch due to fatigue, the Italian captain declared it the last time his team played at such an intensity.
As for La Liga, the argument is based on the fact that the documents had been previously finalized by the parties. When announcing the match schedule after knowing Real Madrid meet Atletico in the 1/8 round of the Champions League, La Liga asked the teams to have a change, everything must be confirmed at the end before February 25. Perhaps Real Madrid themselves did not expect the match against Atletico to be so difficult, causing them to be almost exhausted in the middle of the week.
La Liga also has more room to argue with its decision. The round-robin schedule for the Champions League and Europa League has been available since February 21. In these two tournaments, La Liga has 4 representatives: Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad playing in the domestic league on Sunday. Real Madrid had to play a day earlier and conflicts arose from there.
"To talk about today's victory, I can only thank the players for their great efforts. Today will be the last day Real Madrid play a match with a break of less than 72 hours, never again. We have asked La Liga to change the playing time twice but everything is still the same" - Carlo Ancelotti shared after the win over Villarreal.
On Saturday evening, the Spanish Professional Players' Association (AFE) said that they consider a 72-hour break between matches as a necessary part to maintain the players' physical and mental health. The request for 72 hours of rest has been submitted by AFE to FIFA, but according to the law, FIFA has no responsibility to handle this for each tournament.
This season, Real Madrid have suffered many injuries, mostly due to the high intensity of competition. Ancelotti has been frustrated many times when he saw his players pushed to the brink like that. This veteran strategist shared that sometimes a match is prepared but the players are no longer willing to look forward to it because they are too tired. He also called for reducing the number of matches to improve the quality.
However, Carletto's wish may be unrealistic because when football is considered a tool of the industry, it will be multiplied further in the number of matches and tournaments.
