‘He was very affected’ – Carlo Ancelotti admits he took off Real Madrid star vs Real Sociedad to protect him | OneFootball

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti has provided an insight into the reasoning behind his decision to haul Raúl Asencio off early in the club’s latest outing.

Asencio, for his part, was afforded his latest starting berth on Wednesday night.

Amid a stellar recent spell of individual form, the 22-year-old took his place at right-back, as Real Madrid made the trip to Real Sociedad for a Copa del Rey semi-final clash.

Asencio’s outing, however, proved to be altogether more short than he would have hoped.

The young defender was hooked at half-time at Anoeta, replaced in Los Blancos’ backline by Lucas Vázquez.

Speaking to the media on the back of the full-time whistle in his side’s 1-0 victory, it therefore came as little surprise when the subject of his decision to haul Asencio off after just 45 minutes was put to boss Carlo Ancelotti.

And, in his response, Real Madrid’s headmaster went on to admit that as much came owing to the abusive chants being aimed in Asencio’s direction by the home crowd:

“Raúl Asencio was very affected. Imagine a whole stadium telling you to die… he definitely wasn’t happy. I took him off because of that.”

Conor Laird – GSFN