Report – The meeting between Ancelotti and Real Madrid players that turned things around

It is no secret that the 2024/25 season has not been off to the best of starts for Real Madrid, with the reigning champions of Spain and Europe struggling to perform at their full potential.

Kylian Mbappe’s struggles upon arrival, never-ending injury issues, the absence of Toni Kroos, Jude Bellingham’s slow start, and the poor results in the UEFA Champions League, everything added to the pressure on manager Carlo Ancelotti.

However, things have started to look up for Los Blancos of late following their much-needed win against Atalanta in the UCL, with the team then going on to win the FIFA Intercontinental Cup by beating CF Pachuca earlier this week.

The meeting that changed things

Now, MARCA has revealed how Carlo Ancelotti called a meeting with the Real Madrid players two days after the disappointing defeat to AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League that proved to be the turning point.

Los Blancos suffered a humiliating 1-3 defeat to the Serie A giants at the Santiago Bernabeu in early November – the heaviest of Ancelotti’s era, two days after which the manager held a crisis meeting in the locker room.

The meeting, and the following training session – which saw sparks fly on the pitch – are said to have showed Ancelotti that the team was behind him and that a reaction was possible.

Without that locker room meeting, nothing would have been possible. Captain Luka Modric said it: “We are not going to let the coach down.”

The pieces were not fitting together perfectly and fingers were being pointed at everyone from Mbappe to Ancelotti and other staff members as the hunt for a ‘scapegoat’ began in the media.

But after the meeting, everything started to evolve, showing how the team finally clicked, as demonstrated against Atalanta and culminating in another title.