Carlo Ancelotti calmed Franck Ribery down after the midfielder was booked in Bayern Munich’s 4-1 thumping of Inter in International Champions Cup action Saturday night.
Bayern midfielder Ribery was impressive in the first half, scoring one goal and assisting one of Julian Green’s three strikes on the night. But while Inter struggled to handle the 33-year-old, it did seem that some of Inter’s defenders got into his head. The only yellow card of the match went to Ribery in the 26th minute when he was called for an off-the-ball foul. After the play, Ancelotti called over Ribery to chat and calm down the firey Frenchman.
“I told him that I don’t like players that don’t have good behaviour on the pitch,” Ancelotti said. “If there was provocation, it doesn’t matter. He was, in this game, the captain. I told him just to stop and after this he was OK.”
Ribery, who missed much of the 2015-16 season with various injury concerns, was substituted at halftime but looks to be back at his best under Ancelotti, putting in a head-turning preseason thus far. Earlier this week, Ribery told Kicker that Ancelotti’s caring nature helped him feel important as a player.
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“Under Ancelotti I finally feel trusted again,” Ribery said. “He’s a great coach. I need people like him, Jupp Heynckes or Ottmar Hitzfeld.”
Former Bayern manager Pep Guardiola was notable absent from that list, and while Ancelotti said after Saturday’s victory that he liked to see his team with the ball, he also said he wouldn’t put the same emphasis on possession as his predecessor.
“I think that possession has two goals: You can control the game with possession, and you can find the space where there is free space you can attack,” he said. “Those are the only two reasons because you would like to have tactics with possession, to have good control of the game and to find the space to attack and to try to score.”
Bayern will look to close out its U.S. tour with a win against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
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