Mourinho slams referees after Gil Vicente-Benfica clash | OneFootball

He did not mince words when criticizing the refereeing in the match against Gil Vicente. At the end of the match, during the flash interview, the Benfica coach targeted the match's VAR, admitting that it was wrong not to award the penalty caused by Zé Carlos, which was analyzed by the experts.

First words:

"Did Benfica pay dearly for the way they started the second half? Yes, but Gil Vicente also played and put in a competent performance, as they have done throughout the season. We knew it would be a tough game, against a team that wants to win, and that made it a difficult match. You’re right when you talk about the first minutes of the second half, but it was also an accumulation of events: Aursnes going off, Enzo coming in without having warmed up, Trubin making a quick restart and they equalized in the aftermath. But all of that is normal. We reacted to the equalizer, because it was a result that didn’t suit us. We pushed Gil Vicente back during that phase. The two midfielders I had on the bench were already on the pitch, Rafa was struggling, and we feared they would push us back, but we managed to hold on," he said in statements to Sport TV.

The two goals from set pieces:

"But there are teams that, due to the characteristics of their players, are stronger in certain situations than others. We’re not exactly a team of giants, we don’t have specialists in execution, and we have a lot of corners, which is a result of our attacking football. We also have a significant number of penalties, but today there should have been one more. The play before our goal was a clear penalty. That the referee didn’t see it, I accept, because the game is played at 200 kilometers an hour and sometimes referees can’t see everything, but the VAR must have been having a coffee at that moment because he didn’t see a clear penalty."

Will Aursnes’s injury keep him out of the next match, the classic?

"I don’t know if I’ll have him or not, honestly I don’t know. During the game I didn’t have time to ask those questions, but obviously he’s an important player for us. Today, at the end, we had Enzo and Ríos, a pair that was important for us at one stage of the season, and we still have Manu, who wasn’t called up today by choice, and Prioste, who is having an exceptional season in the second division. If one is out, it’s an opportunity for others."

"Our obligation is to work hard, as we always do. Obviously, if we had left here with a draw, it wouldn’t have been good for us. The players gave everything, and some were fatigued. Playing such an important match at home, obviously our goal is to win, but we know that ahead of us is going to be a very tough game."

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