Real Madrid had to come from 2-0 down to beat Almeria.

It was a game Real Madrid could easily have lost after a woeful first-half, but the Los Blancos turned things around in the second-half.

Carlo Ancelotti was very disappointed with the first-half performance, and he blames himself for selecting the wrong team.

The Italian believes that the team lacked energy in the first-half, which made it easy for Almeria.

Ancelotti said: “It was a strange game. We had a bad first half, lacking energy. The assessment I made after yesterday’s training session was wrong. The team was tired and we performed very badly. Then the team’s character and the support of the fans helped us to come back from a very difficult game and put in a completely different second half.

“I can’t take anything positive from the first half of the game. It’s better to leave it behind. The team was out of sorts and lacked energy. We got off to a very bad start and it’s better to forget the first half. In the second half we won thanks to the boost this stadium gives us, which it always does.

“I could only change the team’s momentum and energy with fresh players. Some players were paying for the extra time in the cup and I made a mistake with the line-up. The ones who came on in the second half gave a big boost.”