Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti took a swipe at LaLiga refs at today's Champions League media conference.

Real host Manchester City tomorrow night leading their round of 16 playoff 3-2 on aggregate.

Ancelotti's presser included questions about the club's row against the local referees' association after recent LaLiga games.

Doubts in the eleven?

"I don't have them. You? That's the doubt you have, that I had, but that has been dispelled. Give me the chance to leave you in doubt until tomorrow. I'm joking... Rüdiger can play from the start, Tchouaméni can play as a pivot and Asencio can play as a centre-back. We'll see how Valverde is, who came out injured against Osasuna. Raúl can also play as a right-back."

European referees:

"Yes, because the statistics speak for themselves. In Europe there is less controversy and fewer interventions, it is done when necessary. In the Champions League the best referees from each country whistle and the quality is very high."

Nine years with the VAR?

"I have doubts because I think that he has removed a little, a lot or too much responsibility from the person who should have it, which is the referee. If you remove the responsibility from the referee it is dangerous. The VAR came in to remove blatant and obvious errors and not for interventions that are football-related.

"Many times they look for an image by removing all the naturalness of football. I see penalties, not only against us, for stamping and I don't know how many players and coaches agree with them. Le Normand's penalty on Borja Iglesias is difficult to understand, as is Tchouameni's and Camavinga's. Less intervention by the VAR gives more responsibility to the referees, who can make mistakes, but I don't understand that the decision is made by the VAR."

Mbappé:

“He is motivated and physically fit, as shown. He is a very calm and peaceful man. He handles stress very well and has good stress management. He is doing very well.”

Bellingham's sanction for his dismissal:

"Obviously we hope that he will not be sanctioned."

The key to the match:

"It will be an entertaining, complicated and difficult match. We have tried to prepare well and we want to recover the players who can help us. We are going to try to play the same game we did a week ago. We will take into account the difficulty of this type of match, of a tie where we play everything in 90 minutes."

The form of the team:

"The last three games have been demanding and we have only gotten one good result, which was against City, but the team is playing well. That gives us confidence and a positive spirit. We have to continue playing well, with quality and, above all, what has stood out in the last few games has been the sacrifice and collective commitment that we have been able to have."

Lucas Vazquez

"He's not ready yet. He'll be able to go to the bench, but he hasn't completed his recovery program yet."