BERGAMO, Italy -- After the 3-0 win over Girona on Saturday, Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti announced: "We're back."
Yeah, they're not. At least not in terms of being a proper team, greater than the sum of its parts. And the fact that they lost another part -- Kylian Mbappé -- 35 minutes into Tuesday's 3-2 win over Atalanta in the Champions League won't help, even though they reclaimed another part in Vinícius Júnior.
The caveat is that they were playing Atalanta and, as Pep Guardiola famously said, playing La Dea "is as much fun as a trip to the dentist.