Mourinho demands penalty in Moreirense v Benfica, jibes at rivals | OneFootball

The expressive victory of Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Moreira de Cónegos did not prevent José Mourinho from addressing sensitive arbitration issues. The Setúbal-born coach expressed satisfaction with the team's collective performance but pointed out a specific incident in the opponent's area involving Vangelis Pavlidis. On social media, the Clube da Luz made a post highlighting this case.

The coach considered that the Greek forward was fouled: “He scores three good goals, could have scored four, because there was a penalty on him. Penalties like those are forgotten because the result was 4-0, but they can decide games when the score was 0-0.”

The criticism extended to the stance of direct opponents, namely Porto and Sporting: “Penalties that others cry about, pressure, shout, and continue to pressure. And we, with a different profile, do it less. Since I'm not interested in winning the fair play award, I must say it was good refereeing, but a mistake between the referee and the VAR.”

The controversial incident mentioned occurred just three minutes into the game. In the home team's penalty area, Gilberto Batista clearly fouled Vangelis Pavlidis. However, Hélder Carvalho, the match referee, chose to let play continue, a decision supported by VAR Rui Oliveira and AVAR Nuno Eiras at the City of Football.

The Eagles now turn their focus to the 15th round of the Liga Portugal Betclic. Benfica hosts Famalicão on December 22, at 8:45 PM, looking to close the gap to the top. Currently, the Reds are in third place on the league table with 32 points, chasing Sporting (35) and FC Porto (37).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.