How Real Madrid won as Carlo Ancelotti vaped in the stands

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At the final whistle, a curious situation arose in the Real Madrid technical area: assistant coach Francesco Mauri grabbed Davide Ancelotti and shook him hard.

But it was far from an angry moment.

Ahead of a vital Champions League match against Arsenal where they will try to come back from a 3-0 defeat in the first leg, Real Madrid got a valuable win at Alaves’ home Mendizorroza thanks to a single goal from Eduardo Camavinga.

With seven games to go and one Clasico remaining in La Liga, Barcelona lead the standings with 70 points, four more than Madrid. But beyond the joy of staying alive in the race for the championship, the triumph was special for the Ancelotti family.

Suspended for accumulating yellow cards, picking up his fifth of the season in his team’s 2-1 loss to Valencia last time out, manager Carlo had to watch the game from the stands and was replaced by his son Davide.

“I was a bit nervous at the beginning, like every first time, but then it was a total joy,”said assistant coach Davide himself in the press conference.

Here, The Athletic tells the story about how things were different for Madrid without their laureate coach… and with his son at the helm.

Carlo Ancelotti is known for being a calm man, so it is hard to remember many games without him on the bench. However, there are precedents.

In 2019, at Napoli, Davide had to step up on at least a couple of occasions, taking on media duties during a 1-1 draw against Sassuolo while also overseeing a game against AS Roma (a 2-1 loss) while his father was suspended.

In 2022, already at Madrid, the young assistant had to step up again against Celta Vigo after Carlo contracted covid-19. At that time, Davide did not have a coaching licence, so ‘officially’, the head coach was Abian Perdomo (the head of methodology of the club’s academy, who did hold that title).

For a long time, however, Ancelotti’s son has been praised internally at the club.

Davide Ancelotti oversaw Real Madrid’s win over Alaves (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

Despite retiring as a professional footballer at the age of 20, he has been part of his father’s coaching staff since they were at Paris Saint-Germain in 2012.

After his second spell at Madrid, Davide began to take centre stage as assistant coach.

The 35-year-old usually leads first-team training sessions with Mauri, something that is always apparent during the club’s U.S. Tours when they open the whole training session to the press, but it is also seen during the games, with the pair constantly offering support to Carlo.

In the days leading up to the visit to Alaves, Madrid staff sources, who prefer not to be named to protect their positions, say that both Carlo and Davide prepared plans for the match together and gave a joint talk to the players at their hotel in Vitoria.

But as soon as they arrived at the stadium, Davide took centre stage. Unlike his father, he went down onto the pitch during the warm-up and gave constant instructions.

There were also other differences in Mendizorroza. According to club sources, fitness coach Antonio Pintus was absent due to personal problems and was replaced by his assistant Giuseppe Bellistri.

On the other hand, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior were rested as Madrid rotated their squad ahead of the Arsenal game, and starting Arda Guler was the coaching staff’s bet.

That’s why Davide was particularly attentive to the Turkish attacking midfielder, giving him orders during the game, especially in the first few minutes when he fell to the ground in an attacking play and was slow to get up to defend.

Eduardo Camavinga scores the only goal of the game (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

The early stages were very difficult for Madrid, who had an endless number of inaccuracies trying to play short from their own area.

Despite not quite getting it right in the game, Davide called out with gestures and whistles for them to keep taking risks.

“Let’s try again,” the Italian gestured every time Thibaut Courtois had the ball at his feet.

After several combinations, two chances in a row from Rodrygo heralded Madrid’s momentum. Finally, on 34 minutes Camavinga made it 1-0 with a strike from outside the box.

Just four minutes later, Kylian Mbappe was sent off for an ill-timed challenge on Antonio Blanco, catching the Alaves midfielder high on the leg with his studs.

But even after that setback, Davide did not lose his cool: his way of managing moments of tension is another of the facets that are most praised at Valdebebas and it was evident when he spent some time talking to substitute Dani Ceballos about tactical matters just after the sending off, all while the tension in the technical area was still high.

“It was all very natural… my father has always given me a lot of confidence, he doesn’t need to tell me anything,” Davide said in his post-match press conference. “Today we had communication but he let me manage the last few minutes, and I’m not surprised.”

Carlo followed the match with team analysts Simone Montanaro and Alvaro Gomar in a box located a few metres from where president Florentino Perez sat.

Despite the distance from the pitch, Carlo communicated his ideas to Montanaro, who, via an internal communication system, quickly passed them on to Mauri, who discussed them with Davide.

“From the top, it always looks different,” a member of the staff told The Athletic after the game. “Everything looks easier and you get more nervous.”

To combat the anxiety in the box, Carlo smoked his electronic cigarette.

Minutes later — although it is unclear whether it was because of the Madrid coach — the Mendizorroza’s speaker casually announced that the stadium was a “smoke-free space”.

Kylian Mbappe, centre, is sent off by referee Cesar Soto Grado (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

In the second half, Davide did not delay in making changes and in the 62nd minute, Bellingham and Vinicius came on (replacing Guler and Rodrygo).

In the 70th minute, a red card for Alaves’ Manu Sanchez for scything down Vinicius as he raced towards goal left both teams with 10 men and evened things up.

Davide then focused on getting his men to look for medium and long-range passes to his attacking men, taking advantage of their speed. The Italian also asked his forwards, several times, to support his defence in their opponents’ transitions and even got annoyed momentarily with Vinicius.

When a refereeing decision had to be protested, it was the experienced goalkeeping coach, Luis Llopis, who was called into action so that Davide was put at risk of punishment.

And in the 92nd minute, Madrid decided to bring on Ceballos to waste some time, as Davide himself later admitted in a press conference.

Alaves had chances until the end and not only outplayed Madrid in possession (56 per cent) but also in shots on goal (six to Madrid’s four) and in passing accuracy (88% to Madrid’s 84%), but Los Blancos managed to hold on without Carlo.

“The win gives confidence, it was what we were looking for here… and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said Davide.

“What has happened has made it a bit more complicated but this result gives a lot of confidence for what happened on Tuesday (in the Champions League)… and for what we want to happen on Wednesday.”

Looking ahead to the Arsenal game, Madrid’s coaching staff they know that their future is up in the air. Whatever happens, Madridistas have already found a great coaching project for the future and his name is Davide.

(Top photos: Getty Images)

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