José Mourinho, the manager of Real Madrid, has confirmed that his team did not deserve to lose against Real Betis, despite suffering a defeat by one goal to nil in the fourth round of La Liga. He emphasized that his players delivered a strong performance both collectively and individually.
José Mourinho spoke at the press conference following the match: “Sometimes you lose and you don’t know why, and sometimes you lose and you don’t know how to explain it. We were in control for the most part, our defenders were fantastic and dominated everything, we did a lot of attacking work and created many scoring chances. If the match had ended in a draw, we would have left feeling frustrated because we did more, so imagine how we feel after the loss. I don’t know why we lost, and I can’t justify it, because the team played very well in all aspects.”
The Portuguese coach praised young player Carlos Espí, who had a goal disallowed for offside, saying: “He is an important player for us. We didn’t get the points because of his work, but he did his job well. He is a player with great potential, humble, works hard, and wants to learn, and I couldn’t be happier with him.”
The coach confirmed the substitution of Arda Güler, stating that the player was performing well but had to be taken off due to a yellow card and concerns about further danger: “It was difficult to change Arda because he was playing very well. But I felt he was in a dangerous position, and it was better to take him off the pitch.”
José Mourinho has criticized what he described as the differing attitudes of Real Madrid and Real Betis players during the match, pointing out that the players of the Andalusian team were more experienced in handling these details. He stated: “Real Madrid players are pure and simple, while Betis players are smarter in this regard. There were situations where Betis players should have received yellow cards, but they continued to play and dealt with the situations differently.”
He continued: “I didn’t see the penalty or the penalty replay or Espi’s goal, so I can’t comment. But I like the referee who allows play to continue. What I didn’t like was the standard of yellow cards in the first half, especially since Betis went into the break without any cards, while Arda, who only knows how to play football, received a yellow card.”
José Mourinho refused to blame the referee for the defeat, stating: “After losing a match, to say the reason is a yellow card, I won’t do that. I might change my mind after watching the match tomorrow, but today, based on what I felt during the game, I don’t know why we lost.”
Regarding Kylian Mbappé’s missed penalty, José Mourinho has strongly defended his French striker, stating: “When a player goes to take a penalty, we all go with him. We all go.”
He added: “I congratulate Real Betis, they played for the draw and came away with the big prize (meaning the win).”
And he concluded: “Replacing Cucurella? He was suffering from muscle cramps.”