Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti admitted injury concerns after their 2-0 win against Valencia on Thursday night.

Marco Asensio and Vincius Jr struck for Los Merengues.

Ancelotti later said: "It was a good game. We are going through a good moment of form. The first half was weaker than the second, but that's normal. In the second half the opposition lowered their intensity and it suits us better. We had the game was under control.

"The negative aspect was the injury situation. Militão's is more serious than Karim's, which seems lighter. Militão won't be available on Sunday and these are things that happen at this stage of the season. The improvement comes because the team is more solid, suffers less and works harder at the back. Those are the keys to the improvement.

"We are in line with what we thought at the start of the season. The new players have been incorporated well and we have coped well with Karim's absence in a number of games. We have one more point than last year and we have scored more goals. January could have been complicated because of the World Cup, but that's over now. We've started February well and luckily we're playing on Sunday at 2.00 pm against Mallorca rather than on Saturday night."

He also revealed: "Kroos asked me to take him off because he had a strained abductor muscle. They are such good professionals that they ask me to change them. If I sub a player it's not because he's not playing well but because I have resources on the bench.

"Sometimes I don't bring Rodrygo on from the start because I think I have another option to change the game from the bench and change the dynamic of the game. This is what enabled us to win a Champions League from the bench."