Jose Mourinho praises Real Madrid players and blasts referee after derby loss at Atletico

Jose Mourinho praised his players despite Real Madrid’s 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano Stadium on Sunday. 

The Portuguese manager said the players showed ‘great class and character’ and directed his anger at the referee for making key errors. 

Mourinho was furious that Atletico defender Cristian Romero was not handed a red card for a stamp on Jude Bellingham in the first half. 

He also complained Lee Kang-in was not sent off for his challenge on Federico Valverde. 

In his post-match press conference, Mourinho said: “Those were two clear red cards.

Given the difficulties we faced afterwards playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like. 

“So I’ll just have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all and played a first half, showed great class and character, setting us up perfectly to win the second half.” 

The turning point of the match came in the 50th minute when Dean Huijsen was dismissed for pulling down Giuliano Simeone inside the box. 

Alejandro Grimaldo converted the resulting penalty to put his side 1-0 ahead. 

Jonathan David continued his fine scoring form to double their advantage, sliding home Simeone’s cross in the 59th minute. 

Antonio Rudiger headed in Bernardo Silva’s free-kick to give the visitors late hope, but Atletico held on to secure a narrow victory. 

Big blow for Madrid

The result leaves Los Blancos six points behind leaders Barcelona in the La Liga standings. 

They have not won a trophy for the last two seasons. 

The Spanish giants brought back Mourinho, hoping he will lead them to success this campaign. The early signs are not encouraging.

Poor refereeing did not help them against Atletico, but their performance was underwhelming.

Huijsen was the main culprit, as his dismissal forced the team to play almost the entire second half with ten men. 

Apart from Bellingham, the rest of the players deserve blame for the disappointing derby loss.