Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Real Madrid must show intensity vs. Athletic Bilbao - coach Carlo Ancelotti

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has called on his team to up their intensity in Saturday afternoon's La Liga trip to Athletic Bilbao.

Madrid travel to the Basque country looking to bounce back from last weekend's surprise 1-1 draw at home to Villarreal, in which the league leaders were outplayed in stages by a visiting team which came to the Bernabeu to take them on.

Ahead of the trip to an imposing San Mames stadium against an Athletic team who have come back into form after their own difficult autumn, the Blancos coach told his pregame news conference that his players needed to be on their game from the first whistle.

"Each game has its own history," he said. "There are games which start well, and are then different. We always want to start with maximum intensity, but we do not always manage that. Tomorrow's game will be a high intensity affair, as they press very well. So we need to start well. The players will try to do that."

The game sees Cristiano Ronaldo return to the ground at which he was sent off last season after a confrontation with Athletic's Ander Iturraspe and Carlos Gurpegui.

The Portugal forward has also come back from a mini dip in form by scoring in each of his last three outings, but local pundits have this week pointed out he has yet to score a free kick in 51 attempts this season.

Asked about this statistic, Ancelotti said the team's policy would not change: "The issue is pretty clear: Cristiano takes [free kicks] on the left side, and Bale takes them from the other side."

Saturday's game comes too early for Luka Modric, who continues his recovery after four months out with a hamstring injury.

Sami Khedira is in contention to start having overcome an ankle problem, and Ancelotti suggested the Germany international could return to the team.

"Modric is not in the squad," Ancelotti said. "On Tuesday he will be there against Schalke. I have doubts between [Asier] Illarramendi, Lucas [Silva] and Khedira."

Athletic qualified on Wednesday night for this year's Copa del Rey final with an impressive 2-0 semifinal second leg win at Espanyol.

Ernesto Valverde's side had a difficult start to the season, including struggles in the Champions League, but have only lost one of their last 10 Liga and Copa games (a 5-2 defeat at home to Barcelona).

Ancelotti wants his team to compete with the always intense Los Leones, saying: "We have a good identity but we do not always seems to be able to show it on the pitch. We must keep that philosophy, because it is the key to winning trophies.

"We have played well and we will play again. We had lost a bit of efficiency up front, we are not playing the ball rapidly forward so it is difficult to make chances when the opposition is compact."

Ancelotti also smartly answered a critical question when asked if he felt he needed to be tougher with his big-name players.

"I feel backed by the club from the first day," he added. "I also have experience of being asked to be tougher. Since I began as a coach I have had problems in that way... this weakness has allowed me to win three Champions Leagues."

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