Real Madrid played out an entertaining 4-4 draw away at Villarreal on Sunday night in their penultimate La Liga fixture of the season.
Alexander Sorloth made the headlines for scoring all four goals for the Yellow Submarine while it was Arda Guler who shone brightly for Real Madrid, grabbing a brace in the first half.
It has been a tremendous turnaround for the 19-year-old wonderkid who did not play during the first half of the season due to injuries and found game-time hard to come by after making his comeback.
Speaking after the game, Guler revealed the advice that he received from Carlo Ancelotti when he was not playing regularly, as he said:
“Even when I wasn’t playing he always communicated with me. He told me to be patient and to keep working, that my time would come. Those words gave me confidence.”
With regard to his recent form, Guler added: “I’m in love with the ball, I love playing football and thank God I’m scoring these goals.”
“I have completely adapted to the team. Everyone here, including the coach and my teammates, are helping me. I want to keep scoring goals like this to make my teammates and the people who believe in me happy.”
The Turkish sensation now has six goals in just ten La Liga appearances (373 minutes), meaning he averages a goal every 62 minutes.
“I never thought I would have numbers like this. I only think about football and working hard. I’m very happy and proud to have these numbers,” he said about his returns.
Regarding the game itself and Real Madrid failing to win despite taking a big lead in the first half, Guler remarked:
“We played a good first half. We were 4-1 up, but our opponents also played well. Of course, Real Madrid always play to win and today it was a draw, but I still think we played well.”