José Mourinho said Real Madrid “risked everything” after going all-out attack in a 3-2 LaLiga win at Elche on Tuesday, with substitute Carlos Espí scoring a 91st minute winner.
Visitors Madrid were cruising at 2-0 up in the first half, with an Arda Güler free kick being touched into the net by keeper Matías Dituro and Kylian Mbappé converting Yan Diomande’s cross, before two goals from Elche levelled the game late on.
Mourinho introduced forwards Espí and Endrick to make it six attack-minded players on the pitch — the subs joining Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Diomande and Brahim Díaz — and his gamble paid off, with Bellingham feeding Mbappé, who crossed for Espí.
“With the changes at the end, I risked everything,” Mourinho said in his postmatch news conference. “We won, but we could have lost. We had to do it, because a draw isn’t enough.”
Espí has now scored decisive late goals in two games this season, away at Espanyol and on Tuesday at Elche, while he also had a stunning overhead kick equaliser disallowed at Real Betis.
“[Espí] is doing well, making an important contribution to the team,” Mourinho said. “He has a problem in front of him, which is a player who isn’t a normal player [Mbappé], and playing with both together isn’t easy.”
Mourinho said Madrid’s problem was “obvious” after throwing away a two-goal lead.
“In games that seem like they’re done, we have three, four, five chances to kill it, and we don’t,” the coach said. “We didn’t score, we didn’t finish it with the 3 or 4-0. When it seems easy, you leave things like that, away from home at these stadiums.
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“They get a goal and it’s an open game. The good thing is that in difficulty, the team reacts and wins.”
Mourinho added jokingly: “The good thing is that nobody gets bored in Real Madrid games. They’re really fun.”
The win allowed Madrid to go level on points with Barcelona at the top of the LaLiga table, ahead of Barça’s game with Racing Santander on Wednesday.
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Mourinho said his players would rest before returning to training on Thursday, ahead of Sunday’s derby at Atlético Madrid, and denied that midfielder Güler had made himself “indispensable” with another impressive performance before being substituted.
“No one is indispensable,” he said. “Vinicius [who was substituted in the second half] did good defensive work, and got tired. Arda’s intensity dropped. Jude came on, and was fresh, and Brahim was fresh.
“I made the changes at 2-0, but I could already tell that we were losing control.”
