Carlo Ancelotti broke with the usual routine in Champions League press conferences and was the first to appear at Valdebebas, before Lucas Vazquez. And he did so to send a message of encouragement to Valencia even before receiving any questions.

Initial message to Valencia: “It’s been a week since this tragedy happened, we have sadness… this is the emotion we have, we are very close to all the people who have been affected. Hopefully this can be resolved soon and in this sense, I hope you can understand, talking about football is very complicated. We are part of this country and all this affects us a lot. Out of respect for you and also not to disrespect the people, I will try to make it simple because I do not feel like talking about football. For me tomorrow is a very special match… but I will try to talk as little as possible.”

“This affects everyone because you hear, you read… and what has happened has been something terrible. We have prepared it because we are professionals and we will try to win it obviously. This is what we have to do.”

“Everyone was clear. Nobody wanted to play. It seemed like the right decision to me. But we are not the ones in charge. The people at the top make that decision.”

Has football missed a great opportunity to stop and help?: “There are many ways to help, I think this is different. Football had to stop and then football can and should help.”

“How does it feel?”: “The feeling is to talk as little as possible about football. As I said, it’s our profession. We have an important, special match against Milan, but in the background.”

Reflection: “What I think is that football is a party, but you can do it when you are well. If your family is well, then you have a party. But when people are not well, you don’t have to have parties. Football has to stop because football is the most important thing… of the least important things in life.”

Best coach award: “I’m happy, the Ballon d’Or has already passed, for me it was June 1 with the Champions League, and we must congratulate all the winners.”

“I can’t assess it, I have to do my best to try to help.”

“Obviously what has happened is normal that they are frustrated. Here I do not want to comment or evaluate what politics has done this week. I do not have the resources, only the sadness to see so many affected. We are in 2024 with all the information in the world that we have… and we are not able to fix this kind of tragedies.”

How has the group lived this whole week?: “It has been a difficult week because the atmosphere is not normal… but nothing to do with the Ballon d’Or. The sadness and the different atmosphere is because of what is happening in Spain.”

“Vinicius is sad like us, but not because of the Ballon d’Or, but because of what he is seeing in Valencia.”

“Politics is a very complicated subject, not only here in Spain. To give an opinion on this, whose fault is it? I don’t know, but I do know that the frustration yesterday is from the people who have lost everything.”

Forcing the footballers to take a break: “No, the power we have is equal to zero. We can’t make any decisions. All the coaches had the same idea, but they had to do it reluctantly.”