Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti admits Barcelona are not a title rival “right now”.

Ahead of victory over Elche, Xavi stated in Barcelona’s pre-match press conference on Friday that his team still retain hope of winning LaLiga Santander, but Ancelotti is not worried about the Blaugrana.

“They are not a direct rival right now, because there are other teams closer to us,” Ancelotti told TribalFootball.

“But they have the quality to rise up the table and if I were Barcelona coach I would say exactly the same as Xavi.”

Currently, Madrid are 15 points ahead of Barcelona while Los Blancos had no problems topping their Champions League group.

Real Madrid meet Cadiz later today.