Carlo Ancelotti, after being beaten by his players: "I told Marcelo 'another, another'"

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Marcelo had already been up there, together with the goddess Cibeles.

It was four years ago, after the Champions League in kyiv, when the previous captain invited him to go up with him: "I thank Sergio Ramos, who took me there once," he recalled.

This Saturday, in his last moments as a Real Madrid player, the Brazilian did it alone, and he enjoyed it.

He gave the goddess a flag as a bib, a scarf on her head as a bandana, left her a kiss on the cheek and stayed up there while We are the Champions played again.

"It is something wonderful.

To do this is to enter the history of Real Madrid”.

RMAReal Madrid

4

Courtois, Casemiro (Isco, min. 60), Marcelo, Jesús Vallejo, Lucas Vázquez, Camavinga (Gila Fuentes, min. 74), Dani Ceballos, Modric (Kroos, min. 59), Rodrygo (Vinicius Junior, min. 74) , Marco Asensio and Mariano (Benzema, min. 59)

ESP Spanish

0

Diego López, Cabrera, Aleix Vidal, Sergi Gómez, Calero (David López, min. 82), Tonny Vilhena (Dídac, min. 64), Óscar Melendo (Manu Morlanes, min. 64), Yangel Herrera (Fran Mérida, min. 75), Darder, De Tomás (Wu Lei, min. 64) and Javi Puado

Goals

1-0 min.

32: Rodrigo.

2-0 min.

42: Rodrigo.

3-0 min.

54: Marco Asensio.

4-0 min.

80: Benzema.

Referee

Jose Luis Munuera Montero

Yellow cards Mariano (min. 41) and Casemiro (min. 45)

Marcelo arrived hungry for overdue glory and with the date of June 30 approaching as a threat.

So when he finished the game against Espanyol, he dropped to his knees on the grass, with his arms raised.

A year ago, in the last game of the season in Valdebebas, he also collapsed on the pitch, but he didn't raise his arms: the League had just escaped him, and Cibeles, by very little.

But this Saturday was not going to be like that: long before the game started, he already knew that he would end the afternoon up there and as the player with the most titles in the history of Madrid, 24.

And it was not a formality.

After half an hour he left his mark, an assist with a pipe to Calero, which Rodrygo made 1-0.

Most of the players followed the winger;

Modric went to squeeze Marcelo with a hug, underlining the meaning of the moment, the afternoon, the League, the Brazilian's career at the Bernabéu.

He put lyrics to it at the end: "The greatest joy a player can have is to celebrate with his fans in a home game after so many years at the best club in the world," he said, also recalling the League two seasons ago, celebrated fleetingly in Valdebebas, in the midst of a pandemic, in an Alfredo di Stéfano without a single fan.

And without Cibeles.

There was more: Madrid had not won the League at the Bernabéu since 2007, with Capello, and Marcelo, after picking up the cup, after the confetti, promoted Carlo Ancelotti's blanket, who was putting on the celebratory shirt with number 35 on top of the jacket.

They threw him into the air again and again, and he enjoyed it, as he recounted: “He told Marcelo: 'Another, another.'

I really liked being in the air.”

The Italian even got emotional before the cameras: “It's genetics.

My father did it, my grandfather did it.

It means that I am very happy,” he explained.

That happiness also came from the unexpectedness of the moment, the unimaginable that it was just a year ago: “I want to thank everyone.

To the president, who brought me here when he didn't expect it”, he said after becoming the first coach to win the five major European leagues.

Florentino Pérez, the president who hired him when he did not expect it, after exploring other options, recounted what happened: “As soon as we called him, he said: 'I'm running'.

Pérez saw his election validated this Saturday after Zidane's departure: "He is the one who best manages powerful squads," he said.

“We have succeeded.

We have been successful with everything, with the planning of the players, with the physical trainer, with the physios, with everything.

For us, Ancelotti is the best”.

It was the beginning of a party that was to continue with a short bus ride through the Castellana to the Cibeles, a celebration dinner with the families in Valdebebas, and a training session scheduled for this Sunday.

Ahead is the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against City on Wednesday, and everyone tried to use the title as a boost, including Ancelotti: “I'm telling the fans.

On Wednesday we need this environment,” he said.

Only Gareth Bale was missing, who wrote on Twitter that he had suffered a "back spasm".

Ancelotti would not have missed it for the world, and already in Cibeles he asked for the microphone: “I like to sing”, he announced.

And he sang: “Lo, lo, lo, lo... Madrid”.

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