Mourinho lashes out at the refereeing collective: "They must be very happy"

BarcelonaReal Madrid has lost the derby against Atlético de Madrid (2-1) and is now six points behind Barça. The whites played the entire second half with ten players due to the expulsion of Huijsen, who committed a penalty on Giuliano Simeone. José Mourinho, however, complained about two red cards that Atlético de Madrid players did not receive. "The story of the match is here, these are two clear red cards," said the Portuguese coach at the beginning of the press conference while showing a paper on which two actions of the match could be seen. The Real Madrid coach protested about two tackles; one by Kang-in Lee and a second one by Cuti Romero on Bellingham, in which Ortiz Arias showed a yellow card to the Argentine center-back after reviewing the play on VAR due to a case of mistaken identity.

"The referee committee must be very happy. Everything has been very strange; a week before the match it was already known who the referee would be, when normally it is known 24 hours before. If at 41 years old he has no international caps, it must be because he is not a great referee. He couldn't handle the pressure," he criticized in reference to the Madrid-born Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias, in charge of officiating at the Metropolitano. "Then, Mr. Trujillo [Daniel Jesús Trujillo Suárez, responsible for VAR during the derby], who called him for the first red card, but not for the second which is even clearer, has a very complete history as a VAR for Madrid's matches. Without going any further, last season against Real Sociedad in the Cup, against Osasuna or Girona," added Mourinho, who recalled that against Elche they also forgave two red cards for the Valencian side.

The Portuguese, who confessed that he did not see the replay of Huijsen's action, insisted on the refereeing controversy. "Things have been seen in recent weeks... The goal disallowed for Osasuna against Atlético de Madrid or the penalties called in favor of the mattress makers and the blue and reds are laughable. I thought I would find a different League from the one I left, but they have already explained to me why not," condemned Mourinho, very angry about the refereeing performance. The coach ironized by saying that the committee had simply "made a mistake" with the designation. "If they let us compete on equal terms, there is a long way to go," he replied in reference to whether they can still win the League.