Mourinho on Benfica v Real Madrid: I had no idea in the final minutes | OneFootball

In an initial analysis of the victory over Real Madrid (4-2), which secured the Reds' passage to the Champions League play-off, José Mourinho explained the reason for placing the Ukrainian goalkeeper - who reacted to the goal - in the opponent's penalty area at 90+8' and at the same time calmed the Benfica fans.

"When I brought on Ivanovic and António [90+3'], I had no idea if 3-2 was enough, I had no indication. They came on to secure the victory. When we realized it wasn't enough, I sent Nico [Otamendi] to play up front, I couldn't make any more substitutions. When the foul occurred, I sent Trubin forward. Dahl stayed in the midfield line. Instead of going with 11, we went with 10, and the little one stayed back because winning would always be important," he highlighted.

"In those moments, we have to go all out, just like in the last play at Dragão [a 0-1 defeat in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup], Trubin went there with danger. We are not a very strong team in aerial play, the big guy goes there and scores a spectacular goal, regardless of our future in the competition," Mourinho emphasized.

"I remembered winning or losing in the last minute, it had happened to me several times, but this situation where we are winning, it's not enough, then you think it's enough and it's not. This victory is historic, from an economic point of view it's important and from a prestige point of view even more so," the Reds' coach underlined.

However, José Mourinho, despite the victory and the consequent progression to the next phase, asked for "respect": The only thing I would like this victory to give is a bit of respect. I appeal for many of those people not to be committing suicide or jumping off balconies, stay calm, Benfica will lose and they will kill us again, the only thing I would like is a bit of respect for Benfica and the players."

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