Furious after the defeat (2-1) on Sunday in the derby against Atlético, Real Madrid coach José Mourinho considered himself wronged by refereeing decisions, ensuring, printed photos in hand, that two opposing players should have been excluded. The Portuguese technician, accustomed to communication stunts, oriented his press conference by targeting only the refereeing, according to him not the height of the stakes of the meeting, marked by the exclusion of Real defender Dean Huijsen at the start of the second half.
The Madrid coach pointed out what he considers to be two faults on his players that deserved a red card by showing screenshots printed on sheets of paper to journalists.
“These two mistakes? We can end the press conference here, because that’s the story of the match. These are two light red cards. With the difficulties we had ten against eleven, imagine how they would have managed to hold out nine against eleven for 50 minutes… Atlético fans can be happy, but the refereeing committee must also be happy, because it’s all very strange,” Mourinho said.
The Portuguese coach directly charged Miguel Angel Ortiz, described as “a poor 41-year-old referee who does not have the international level”, and the video refereeing delegate Daniel Jesus Trujillo, who, according to him, had “a ridiculous story with VAR against Real Madrid”. He then claimed that he preferred to think that the referees “just made a mistake”, as a coach or a player can do.
“Even if we are left in peace, and quiet, if we are left to compete as equals, with similar circumstances, we are missing a lot of things,” Mourinho then admitted after this second defeat in La Liga, which leaves Real six points behind FC Barcelona, leader.
Asked about the Negreira affair, former head of arbitration accused of having received payments from Barça, the Merengue coach refused to enter into a conspiracy theory, unlike his predecessor Alvaro Arbeloa.
“If La Liga is tainted by the Negreira affair? This gentleman is no longer here, right? So no, that’s not the case,” he concluded.
