PA Media/dpa
Madrid
Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti believes his side have learned from an El Clasico thrashing in October as they prepare to face Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final on Sunday.
Barcelona ended a four-match losing run against Real in style as Robert Lewandowski bagged a second-half brace and Lamine Yamal and Raphinha struck in the final quarter of an hour to seal a 4-0 mauling at the Bernabeu.
However, Real sit atop LaLiga at the halfway stage of the season, five points ahead of third-placed Barca, who have recorded just one win and two draws from their past seven matches in the top flight.
As Real look to pile on the misery, Ancelotti was adamant they will not make the same errors in Jeddah on Sunday that proved their undoing when they last came up against their fierce rivals.
"Of course we’ll have to think about the first Clasico of the season when they beat us,” Ancelotti said at his pre-match press conference.
"We started well but we ran into problems in the second half.
"We have to see a repeat of the things we did well and avoid the mistakes we made later. A Clasico is a Clasico and the pressure is even greater in a final.
"It’s a really unpredictable game. We are very clear about what we have to do to reduce our risk factors, but nobody can predict the result because so many things come into play.
"What we can control is how we conduct the game and I’m certain we’ll do that very well. That said, that won’t determine the result 100 per cent.” Real booked their spot in the showpiece by brushing aside Mallorca 3-0 to set up a repeat of last year’s final, which Ancelotti’s side won 4-1 largely thanks to Vinicius Junior’s hat-trick.
Jude Bellingham is likely to shrug off a minor muscle strain to feature this weekend, while Ancelotti is paying no attention to the uproar surrounding Barcelona’s Dani Olmo.
Barcelona’s bid to register Olmo was rejected by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) and LaLiga last Saturday but the forward has been temporarily reinstated by the country’s sports council.