A frustrated José Mourinho spoke to the media after a 1-0 defeat to Real Betis, the team’s first of the season, showing his anger at both his rival and referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández as he explained, “look… I don’t know why I got the yellow card, but it’s okay, I accept it. I stood up because a Betis player looked like he was out cold right there in front of the bench… but I don’t know. The penalty situation, the retake, Espí’s goal… I don’t know, I can’t tell you. I saw a lot of frustrated people
on the bench who were watching the plays. I didn’t see it. I can’t comment. It seems to me that he let the game flow, which is something I like. In that sense, I always like a referee who lets the game flow. The way the yellow cards were handed out in the first half, the fact that Betis went into halftime without any cards and poor Arda, who only knows how to play soccer, got a yellow… I didn’t like that. But after losing a game, to say it’s because of a yellow card, no, I won’t do that. I might change my mind after watching the game tomorrow. But today, based on my impressions of the game, I don’t know why we lost. I can’t explain it, because as a team we played very well, very well in every aspect. Individually, too, I have no complaints about any player’s attitude. The guys gave it their all. We deserved to win, but deserving it doesn’t earn you points. Congratulations to Betis, who played to draw and ended up hitting the jackpot.”
Mourinho on Mbappé’s penalty and Espí’s disallowed goal
“I haven’t seen it… I haven’t seen it in detail. I didn’t see it in the locker room. I can’t comment on that.”
Mourinho on Espí deserving more playing time
“I think the team played a great game. Sometimes you lose and you don’t know why; sometimes you lose and you don’t know how to explain it. We were very dominant, with our center backs in commanding form who controlled absolutely everything, plenty of attacking play, and plenty of scoring chances. If it ends in a tie, we’ll walk away frustrated because we did more, imagine how it would be with a loss. As for Espí… he’s a guy who comes on for 10–15 minutes and scores a fantastic goal that later, I don’t know… maybe it was offside, maybe not… but he’s an important player for us. We didn’t come away with any points as a result of his work, but he did his job well. He did well. He’s a young man with great potential and will only get better, because he’s humble, hardworking, and eager to learn. I couldn’t be happier with him.”
Mourinho on what he asked of the substitutes
“The team has always played well. Betis had a few counterattacks, which is to be expected. And that’s it, the game belonged to Real Madrid. I haven’t seen the data or statistics… but I can imagine that we’ve done… not just possession, because possession often means nothing, but we’ve created a lot of chances. We’ve had, I don’t know, 10, 15, 18 shots on goal. We missed three or four clear chances. The goalkeeper made three or four impressive saves. The substitutions weren’t because I wasn’t happy with the team, but to take off the players who had yellow cards. And for the combination play with Diomande, who plays wide, it’s better to play with Trent, who plays inside, than with Dumfries. And then, the last substitution… The second-to-last one! Because Carreras came on after that. But the substitution of Valverde for Espí… was to really ramp up the high pressure in these final 10–12 minutes against a deep-lying defense, where a target man is needed to free up Kylian for positions between the lines.”
Mourinho on whether some players can’t be substituted
“It’s hard to substitute Arda, yes. Very hard. Because he was playing very well. The Betis players are… in that sense, they’re smarter than the Real Madrid players. The Real Madrid players are pure, naive. The very first play of the game was a clear yellow card for a player who hit Valverde. A minute later, another yellow card for a player who committed a major foul on Vinicius. But the Real Madrid players get back up immediately. The Betis players are smarter… they’re smarter. And obviously, with the support of a fantastic crowd that’s cheering them on and putting pressure on the opposition… they manage to pull off these kinds of things. I don’t know how Arda ended the first half with a yellow card, when he’d played so much, so much, so much… and committed just a minor foul that resulted in a yellow card. But then they were out to get him, obviously. And I had to take him off the field because I had this feeling that he was in a risky situation. And it was difficult to substitute him, yes.”
Mourinho on teaching the team to be less naive
“No, maybe I didn’t explain myself well. The team worked incredibly hard. They gave it their all. As for “naive”… I mean it in the sense that the Betis players almost tried to influence the referee’s calls and the Real Madrid players’ performance in situations that are clearly yellow-card offenses, for example, a stomp, which is a yellow card… In the first minute, a stomp on Valverde, and he just stayed on his feet. That’s worthy of a Real Madrid captain, but let me give you an example from the other side: that guy who was lying there motionless in front of my bench, I thought an ambulance was on its way, but in the end, there was no ambulance. That’s what I mean. And when you play against teams with this kind of culture, this kind of mentality, it works against you. But I’m very happy with my players. All of them. All of them. I really liked them as a team, and individually, I have nothing to criticize. And the missed penalty, as I always say, when one of us steps up to take the penalty, we’re all in it together. We’re all in it together.”
Mourinho on injury to Cucurella
“Cramps, cramps.”
