Atletico Madrid hit back at Mourinho after he printed out two controversial refereeing decisions in the Madrid derby at his post-match press conference.
Mourinho accused officials of missing two red cards during Real Madrid’s 2-1 defeat at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday.
Atletico responded in typical fashion, posting a series of content on their
A second image then showed Mourinho at a press conference and delivered the same message for the third time: “This year they have a new challenge. Three weeks without league football. This season they start very early.”
This isn’t the first time Atletico have used their social media accounts to poke fun at a rival, with the club repeatedly mocking Barcelona after their failed pursuit of striker Julian Alvarez.
In addition to Mourinho’s post-match statement, the match report posted on Real Madrid’s website stated that the derby defeat was due to “poor refereeing” by Ortiz Arias.
Although Mourinho believed the home side deserved two red cards, it was actually a Real Madrid player who was sacked, Dean Huizen for denying Guiliano Simeone a goal-scoring opportunity.
Alejandro Grimaldo converted a penalty and Jonathan David made it 2-0 six minutes later to give Atletico the lead.
Antonio Rudiger reduced the deficit in the 89th minute but that did not prevent Real Madrid from suffering a second defeat in La Liga this season, with Mourinho’s side already six points behind leaders Barcelona in the standings.
Mourinho: The story of the game is here
“We can skip the press conference because the story of the game is here,” Mourinho said on Sunday as he showed the media the image printed on A4 paper.
“Those were two clear red cards. Considering the difficulties we faced after 11 vs. 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 vs. 9 would have been like.”
“So I just limited myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all, played the first half, showed great class and character and were perfectly prepared for us to win the second half.”
Asked to respond to Mourinho’s rant about the referee, Simeone said he always respects other people’s opinions.
“I know that as coaches we are in the privileged position of being subject to public scrutiny, whether it’s Mourinho, [Barcelona manager Hansi] flick, [Real Betis boss Manuel] Pellegrini, me or anyone else, we all need to be careful about what we say,” he said.
“We have to know how to respect other people, referees, colleagues. When someone crosses the line of respect, it’s not right – you can’t cross that line.”