Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti said his team did not play football in the first half of the Spanish Super Cup final, which lost 5-2 to arch-rivals FC Barcelona on Sunday.

Los Blancos prepared for a night to remember after Kylian Mbappe grabbed a ball stolen from Vinicius Jr. by Marc Casado and made it 1-0 within five minutes.

However, Madrid were 4-1 down at half-time and Raphinha added to the Catalans’ tally again after the break – his second of the evening.

Rodrygo pulled the ball back with a converted free kick after Barca keeper Wojciech Szczesny was shown a straight red card for lifting his studs towards Mbappé just outside the 18-yard area.

Ultimately, however, the 2024 champions were unable to take advantage of Hansi Flick’s squad being down to ten players as the German won his first silverware since succeeding Xavi Hernandez as Blaugrana coach last summer.

Reacting to the defeat in a post-match press conference, Ancelotti began by saying that Madrid had to “look at reality”.

“We didn’t defend well. They scored goals very easily. We didn’t work well either collectively or individually, which makes us sad and disappointed,” Ancelotti added.

“This is football. We have to go home and our sadness is that of our fans. We have to look forward and prepare well for the next game.”

Although both men had an unforgettable night, Ancelotti didn’t want to point the finger at Aurelien Tchouameni or Lucas Vazquez.

“They didn’t defend well at the back. The team was not compact. We have to defend better,” demanded the Italian.

“The game wasn’t good from the first to the last minute. We had one (player) left and we couldn’t create any scoring situations. I was injured the whole game,” he continued.

Asked about his half-time talk with a team that was 4-1 down, Ancelotti said he told his troops: “We should try to play football because in the first half we didn’t do that.”

“We took advantage of long balls, but that had to be an option, not the idea. The idea was to play and we didn’t do that. I said we could lose, but not like we did in the first half,” revealed Ancelotti.

After losing their Super Cup title, Madrid return to action in the Copa del Rey on Thursday when they host Celta Vigo at the Bernabeu.