Penalty, betrayal claims and renewal: Mourinho on Benfica v Porto | OneFootball

The Classic match between Benfica and Porto, from the 25th round of the Liga Betclic, ended in a draw (2-2). In the press conference, José Mourinho began by explaining what led to his expulsion from the bench after the equalizing goal, saying he was insulted by Lucho González and denies having talked with Rui Costa about the renewal. Check everything the Special One said.

Game analysis and penalty protests in the last play

"I didn't see it. I was no longer on the bench, I didn't have the chance to see it on television, and I don't want to make the mistake I made last week, asking for a penalty and then it wasn't. But I would like to talk about my expulsion. The referee says he expelled me because I kicked a ball to Porto's bench, which is completely false. I don't know if it was three, four, or five times, but I've done it many times at Estádio da Luz: our goal, ball to the stands. A way to celebrate and give a ball to the lucky fan. I know I'm not very good technically, but no... it was for the stands."

Insults

"A member of Porto's bench (Lucho González), who was also expelled, called me a traitor 50 times in the tunnel. I would like him to explain to me: traitor of what? I was at Porto, I gave my soul. I went to Chelsea, I gave my soul to Chelsea. I went around the world and gave my soul, my life, 24 hours every day. This is called professionalism. One thing is the insults from fans, it's football. They are the same ones who years ago kneeled at my feet, now they insult me, no problem. But a fellow professional calling me a traitor? I didn't like it."

Expulsion and game

"I was wrongly expelled. The 4th referee did a terrible job throughout the game and when he tells the referee that I kicked a ball towards Porto's bench. As for the game, they were closer to winning than we were. You may like it a lot, less, or hate it, but they built a team with an idea: the player profile is for that game model, it's a team of tremendous physicality. They have four wingers, each faster than the other. And they are much superior to us in game intensity. The best game we played against Porto was the Portuguese Cup one, because we played with Aursnes and Barreiro, we had a lot of the ball and lost very little of it. When you lose a lot of the ball, you end up chasing them, only they are on motorbikes and you are on a bicycle. The danger was always there. At 2-0 it could have been 3-0, at 2-1 it could have been 3-1. They played the game they wanted to play and take a good result for them, but I think they came to win. They got ahead and are experts in game management, timing, fouls, cards, protests. And then they take João Pinheiro with them. We had a terrible first half. I felt very limited: one thing is to play with Aursnes and Barreiro and another with Enzo and Ríos. The profile is different. Being limited with my substitutions, because Barreiro couldn't play more than 10/15 minutes — and he himself set the timings: 'Mister, 10/15 in a limit situation, no more than this.' Sudakov the same as Barreiro. And Lukebakio still not ready for me to put him in at halftime. I didn't want the team to think 'now we're going to get there and break the game and blow them away.' We're not going to blow anything away. They would blow us away if we weren't balanced. And they swap the two wingers and take out two Ferraris to put in two McLarens. If we made it 2-1 the game could change, as it did. It was heart, it was pride, the desire to win. But they were stronger than us."

Title race and renewal?

"I didn't have any conversation in that sense. The standings don't change, but we no longer play against Porto, we can no longer directly recover points. I consider it difficult to recover seven points. It's very easy to identify how Porto plays, it's very difficult to play against them. And losing points doesn't seem easy to me. As long as math is math, anything can happen."

Lucho González

"Called me 20 or 30 times. Traitor of what? When he went to Marseille, did he betray Porto? He could have insulted me in another way, perhaps I would have accepted it better, but it's an attack on my professionalism which I value so much. I was a little disappointed, he's a professional like me."

First half?

"They managed to mark a superiority, a lot of lost balls. If you don't have great control of the game and if you enter into a back-and-forth, you have no chance, we did that in the first half. The second goal we conceded is absolutely ridiculous. It's Porto's left winger in a one-on-one with Benfica's left center-back. Where was the right-back, the right center-back, and the midfielder of the double pivot? The right-side midfielder? The opposite center-back has to come across to make a one-on-one in the area with a creative, fast player. We made mistakes. I was watching Farioli's flash and he said 'we had four or five situations in open play.' It's true. They weren't goal situations because they couldn't be as effective as the kid Pietuszewski. I don't like doing it, but the thing is so obvious that I have to do it: without Aursnes our music is different."

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