Carlo Ancelotti panned for decision during Real Madrid victory over Manchester City | OneFootball

Wednesday’s match against Manchester City turned out to be much easier than expected for Real Madrid, who won 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu. That result rubber-stamped the defending champions’ place in the last 16 of the Champions League, where they will face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen – the draw is on Friday.

It was a rather comfortable evening for Los Blancos, who were carrying a 3-2 aggregate lead from last week’s first leg at the Etihad Stadium, and that reached 5-2 by half time at the Bernabeu after a brace from Kylian Mbappe, who would go on the complete his hat-trick in the second half.

It wasn’t until the match was completely finished as a contest that Carlo Ancelotti turned to his substitutes’ bench. Dani Ceballos and Mbappe were withdrawn on 78 minutes to be replaced by Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Diaz, while further changes saw Luka Modric, David Alaba and Endrick Felipe brought on in the final stages of proceedings.

In the end, there was no opportunity to Arda Guler, whose minutes have been scarce in recent months. He has not featured in either of five of Real Madrid’s last six matches across all competitions, with his only appearance during this time being in the Copa del Rey quarter-final victory over Leganes, for which he was a starter and played 76 minutes.

Arda Guler has struggled to break into Carlo Ancelotti’s thoughts (Photo by EP)

The decision not to bring on Guler in Wednesday’s match against Man City has been met with disdain in the playmaker’s home country of Türkiye, as per Diario AS. They could not believe that their national hero could not even get minutes in the dying stages when the contest was already completed finished.

The growing feeling among Guler’s supporters is that he should leave Real Madrid in order to get regular minutes. A recent report has stated that the 19-year-old is willing to depart in the summer if his situation does not change, which for now, does not look like happening.