Ancelotti: Courtois’ performance tomorrow is out of the question

– Preparing for the classic? We are preparing for these matches as always. Here we must add how special this meeting is for everyone. These are two great teams. Like all classics and derbies, they are unique encounters. There’s an emotional side, stress, anxiety, peace… everything that makes this kind of match.

Courtois is very good. However, it is true that he has not trained much and does not feel comfortable with it. Courtois’ performance tomorrow is out of the question. You will train with more consistency the following week. Maybe he will play on Wednesday or maybe on Sunday. He’s out of his trouble and now he lacks training.

– Rudiger is fine. He only has a mask so his wound doesn’t open. He does not feel any pain, he feels comfortable. He is a fighter. It will be available tomorrow.

“Rodrygo looks like a player who should come off the bench?” When I think of Rodrygo, I think of a strong and extraordinary player. He was better off the bench last season because he didn’t get the minutes he got now. This season he has shown that he can do well when he plays again. This is an advantage he can play in any position in attack.

– Will I come up with something new in the tactics of this match? I don’t want to make up anything [śmiech]. Because I didn’t make up anything either. There are no inventors in football. Football was invented a long time ago…so let me make it clear that I don’t want to invent anything. But yeah, last season I tried to think of something and they hit me [śmiech]. I will be taking the team from the final from Paris in terms of the mentality that knows what to do and I will do what has to be done at every point of the match. We play with a high-level opponent and we have to play a full match with good defense and good attack. This is the only way to win matches and titles too.

– What bothers me in Barcelona? I see a team that has won all but the first league matches. We look at him. It’s a team that has been doing really well since the start of the league and had some problems in the Champions League, but you can have problems in this competition. But they were amazing in the league.

– Have you seen Barcelona and Inter and can I see that the defeat will hurt them more? I don’t know… I don’t know how Wednesday’s match affected them. We are far from the end. We have to focus on our game and we have to try to win. Barcelona has the means to play a great season.

– Benzema’s form? I saw him this week in much better physical shape. I’m sure we’ll see the kind tomorrow we’ve always seen.

Did the Inter match at Camp Nou surprise me and could I use anything from his game? We play differently than Inter, but it is true that Inter showed courage. They did not give up after conceding a goal, they played very effectively from the front. Could this help us with something? No, we will play differently.