Madrid, Oct 21 (IANS) Ahead of Real Madrid’s clash with Borussia Dortmund, a rematch of the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League final, manager Carlo Ancelotti has spoken regarding criticism surrounding Kylian Mbappe’s defensive contributions. “To score goals. I prefer him to score goals more than defend. The number nine at Real Madrid has been like this for many years, like with Karim (Benzema), to be ready for a quick transition.”

The French forward scored a brilliant goal against Celta Vigo on the weekend and helped the side attain three points.

According to a report by German outlet Bild, the Borussia Dortmund squad delayed their travel to the capital of Spain due to concerns, made by former Real player and current Dortmund head coach Nuri Sahin, of employees ‘spying’ at the German team’s tactics during their training session. The Italian head coach went on to acknowledge the rumours and claimed them to be untrue.

“We know it all about the rival team. We watch all their games. There’s no secrets, I have enough information about the team and how they’ve played recently,” he added.

There have also been concerns regarding the reduced impact of Jude Bellingham this season as the Englishman is yet to score his first goal of the season after having scored 22 league goals and providing six assists in the league last season.

“We’re satisfied with his work, I’m very satisfied because he works a lot, he presses, competes, fights, and makes sacrifices. The surprise isn’t this year, it was last year when he scored a lot of goals when no one expected it. We will always score goals, we have very talented players in attack, and the work his team is doing is much more important than his goals last season,” he said.