Jose Mourinho making Benfica players sleep at training ground after cup loss | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho has suggested he will make his players sleep at Benfica’s training ground for the next few days after the Portuguese giants crashed out of the League Cup semi-finals to Braga.

Benfica suffered a 3-1 defeat at home in Wednesday’s tie, ending the game with 10 men when former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi was sent off in the 90th minute.

Mourinho, who was appointed Benfica boss in September, lambasted his squad in a press conference following their cup exit and revealed their resting place for the night - and possibly foreseeable future - would be Benfica’s training hub in Seixal.

"Thinking we'd be playing the final, we're not going home, we're going to Seixal," Mourinho fumed. "The players will sleep in Seixal, and tomorrow there's training, and the day after tomorrow there's training.

"Since there's no final on Saturday, our next game is against Porto next Wednesday. When we arrive in Seixal, everyone will go to their rooms.

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Jose Mourinho fumed at his players after Benfica's cup exit at Braga (REUTERS)

“I hope the players sleep as well as I do, which is to say that they don't sleep at all. That's what I wish for them. That they don't sleep and instead think a lot, like I'm going to think."

Former Chelsea and Manchester United boss Mourinho has won 14 of his 23 matches in charge of Benfica, though the club remain 10 points adrift of fierce rivals Porto at the top going into the second half of the season.

The latest edition of O Classico will come next midweek when Benfica visit the Estadio do Dragao to face Porto in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup.

"On Thursday we can start talking, which isn't what happened in the locker room," Mourinho added.

"In the locker room it was a monologue, and monologues don't work for me; I like to have a dialogue with the players.

"We'll talk about the differences between the first and second halves and prepare in the best way possible for the game against Porto."