In a trademark José Mourinho press conference, the Real Madrid coach exploded against referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz following his team’s 2-1 defeat to Atlético Madrid at the Metropolitano as he said: “Yes… we could have saved ourselves the press conference because the story of the match is here (showing photographs, printed out on paper, of Baena and Kang-in Lee’s challenges). They are two clear red cards. The difficulties we had afterwards, 11 against 10, we can imagine what 50 minutes with 11 against nine
would have been like. And therefore I have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave everything. Who played a first half of great class, personality. And the match could perfectly have been won in the second half. And then, whoever has to be happy… obviously the Atlético people, because they have won the points, but whoever has to be happy is the Refereeing Appointments Committee, because everything has been very strange. The first thing is that a week before the match you already know who the referee is when, according to what I am told, it is 24 hours before. And a week before, it was already known who the referee was. Then, they put a referee who at 41 years old has no international status… well, it will not be because he is a great referee. Then, the poor man came here and could not cope with the pressure, which is a pressure that I call the ‘pressure of the 1980s’, which you see very little nowadays. And then, Mr Trujillo, who was the VAR, who called him for the first red card and I think he did not call him for the second, which is even bigger than the first… This Mr Trujillo has a very complete history as VAR in Real Madrid matches. And without going any further, last season, Real Sociedad in the Copa, Osasuna, Girona… He is a… He is a VAR who has a lot of history and if the poor referee, well, you can say that he was someone without the experience and dimension to come to a derby… this gentleman has no pressure. Because there, in Las Rozas, there is no pressure. Or there is pressure and we do not know. But… I would really like to leave here… obviously with the victory but, having lost, I would really like to leave here without having to speak. I have already been here for three months and I think you have already understood that I am not very much in this direction. But… two red cards against Elche… but afterwards we won. Two red cards today… it is already a little more difficult. This combination, a referee, poor referee who has only done small matches and the VAR gentleman, who has a great history, well… congratulations to the Refereeing Appointments Committee.”
Mourinho on Huijsen’s sending-off
“Huijsen’s sending-off, I confess to you that I still have not seen it on VAR… sorry, on VAR, on the iPad. I still have not seen it. And it was very far away to have a judgement. I do not know, I do not know. There are people who tell me in the dressing room that the foul starts outside the area and if that is so, it should be a foul, sending-off and 0-0. If it is inside, it is a penalty and if there is an obvious action of pulling the shirt, in that case it would be a sending-off. But all of this is the second half. And in the first half we are talking about a derby of 11 against nine. The second was eleven against ten and you saw the difficulties. The players had to give everything they had in order to compete, so imagine eleven against nine. There are no miracles in football. 11 against nine… we can already imagine how it would have ended. But, honestly, I have not seen Dean’s. Not yet.“
Mourinho on being six points behind Barcelona
“Obviously we want to be first, not second, third, fourth or fifth. We want to have more points. Obviously, obviously. But, under normal conditions and this is not how it starts, but how it ends, under normal conditions and we are talking about the end of September, when there is still so much to play… but when… and I would not like to go down that road, because I have already gone too far and I do not want to do it any more. But things that have been seen in recent weeks… here in this stadium… the goal disallowed for Osasuna is laughable, the penalty in San Sebastián is laughable, Barcelona’s penalty is laughable, the failure to send off against Athletic Bilbao with this gentleman who has been very nice (points behind him), with a boy who is a great player… they are accumulated things. I thought I was finding a different league from the league I had left. They told me no and they explained to me why it was not different from the league I left here years ago. But here we are. We are going to fight. Now, the boys are leaving sad, obviously, but they do so with the embrace of their coach, because I respect very much what they feel on the pitch. I respect very much that it is not easy to be on the pitch the way they have been. If we want to remember Elche, Elche’s two sendings-off… no, but in the first minute, the yellow card for Diomande… what our players feel on the pitch is not normal. But I liked my team as a team. Very much in the first half and in the second… obviously very, very, very difficult. Very difficult to have the ball, to stop the possession of the ball of a good team and with one more player. But I liked the pride, the determination. And it is a good feeling for me. It is not being disappointed with my players, not having anything to reproach them for. Within the negative of the result, it is a positive feeling for me.”
Mourinho on whether the league title is complicated
“If they leave us in peace, calmly and let us compete on equal terms with everyone, there is a long way to go, there is a long way to go. I do not want to go too far and say that this is something prepared. I do not want to think about this, but rather that they have simply made mistakes, as a coach or player makes a mistake. I want to think that the Refereeing Committee has made a mistake. Poor people, they made a mistake and they put in someone who is 41 years old who has never been in a situation like this and another who has a very ridiculous history against Real Madrid. They made a mistake, only this.”
Mourinho on whether La Liga is tainted by the ‘Negreira case’
“Negreira is no longer there, is he? Or is he still there? Ah, if he is not there, it is not tainted by Negreira. If he is no longer there…”
