José Mourinho blasted the referee and the VAR after Real Madrid’s 2-1 derby defeat to Atlético Madrid, saying Atlético should have received “two clear red cards” and claiming the on-field official “couldn’t cope with the pressure.”
Alejandro Grimaldo put Atlético ahead with a second-half penalty at the Metropolitano — after defender Dean Huijsen was sent off for bringing down Giuliano Simeone — before Jonathan David made it 2-0. Antonio Rüdiger pulled a late goal back as Madrid dropped to fourth in the LaLiga table.
However, Mourinho’s post-match news conference focused on two first-half incidents, where Atlético’s Cristian Romero was shown a yellow card — not a red — for treading on Jude Bellingham‘s knee, while Lee Kang-in escaped punishment for a crunching challenge on Federico Valverde.
Mourinho brought printed-out photos of the two incidents into the press room to show journalists, before delivering a long, damning indictment of referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias and VAR Daniel Trujillo Suárez.
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“The story of the game is here,” Mourinho said, holding up the images of the two challenges. “They’re two clear red cards. With the difficulties we had afterwards — with 11 versus 10 [players] — you could imagine what it would have been like [for us] for 50 minutes with 11 versus nine.
“It’s the CTA [the referee’s committee]. It’s all been very strange. It’s a referee [Ortiz Arias] who, at 41, doesn’t have international experience. I don’t know why he was the referee. The poor guy came here and couldn’t cope with the pressure.
“But for [the VAR] there’s no pressure, at [RFEF HQ] Las Rozas there’s no pressure. Or maybe there is and we don’t know… That combination — a poor referee, who’s only done small games, and a VAR with a big history. Congratulations to the CTA.”
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The Portuguese coach said he hadn’t yet seen a replay of Huijsen’s red card, and went on to list a series of incidents in games involving Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético in recent weeks, suggesting Real’s rivals had benefitted.
“The penalty at Real Sociedad [for Atlético] is laughable,” Mourinho said. “The penalty for Barcelona is laughable, the non-sending off [for Barcelona] against Athletic Club. So many things together… I thought I’d find a different league to the one I left [in 2013], and people told me no, and they explained why. But we’ll fight.”
Madrid are now six points behind leaders Barcelona with seven games played, going into the international break.
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“If ‘they’ leave us in peace, and let us compete on an even playing field, there’s a long way left,” Mourinho said, when asked if his team could still fight for the title.
“I don’t want to say this was prepared. I want to think they’re mistakes, like a coach makes mistakes. I want to think the CTA made a mistake, and picked a referee of 41, who’s never been in this situation. They made a mistake, that’s all.”
Atlético coach Diego Simeone refused to discuss the refereeing decisions, preferring to focus on his team.
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“We’re always respectful of others’ opinions,” he said, when asked about Mourinho’s comments.
“We’re in a privileged position: Mourinho, [Hansi] Flick, [Manuel] Pellegrini, me. We need to be careful what we say… When we go outside that respect, it doesn’t matter if you’re Mourinho, Simeone, Pellegrini or Flick, you can’t cross that line.”
