"What exactly is playing well?" - Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti responds to Barcelona manager Xavi's comments 

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has responded to Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez's cheeky dig at Los Blancos earlier this week.

Xavi took a dig at the Spanish capital club following their Champions League quarter-final second leg clash against Chelsea.

The Spanish capital club needed an extra-time strike from Karim Benzema to secure themselves a spot in the semi-finals.

The Barcelona manager claimed that Barcelona were obliged to 'playing well' rather than just winning games, unlike their rivals.

In Real Madrid's pre-match press conference ahead of the Sevilla game, Ancelotti was asked to remark on Xavi's comments.

Ancelotti has claimed that everyone has their own opinion about 'playing well' and for him it is about doing well both on and off the ball.

The Italian said, as quoted by Barca Blaugranes:

“I’d like to answer that with a question - What exactly is playing well? Everyone has their own opinion on that."

"For me, playing well means doing well when you have the ball and when you don’t."

"You could be brilliant defensively, but that doesn’t mean you are playing well, because if you don’t do anything when you have the ball, you’re not doing what you need to do to win so you are not playing well. And vice versa, if you attack well and defend badly, you are not playing well."

The 62-year-old has stated that football is about both 'attacking and defending'. He also cited the example of Atletico Madrid doing well defensively against Manchester City.

The Italian added:

“Football is about attacking and defending. A team plays well when they can attack well and defend well - whether that is with a low, medium or high press. That’s football in my view, and nobody’s going to change what I think."

“I’ll give you an example, against City, Atlético defended really well, after that you could argue whether they could have done more when they had the ball but their defending was excellent.”

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Barcelona and Real Madrid are having contrasting seasons in Europe

After Xavi Hernandez took a dig at Real Madrid for not 'playing well', his own team were embarrassed in Europe.

Barcelona suffered a 2-3 at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Real Madrid are cruising towards the La Liga title and have made it to the semis of the Champions League.

Barcelona, on the other hand, are destined to finish the season trophyless and have also failed to make the semis in the Europa League.