Mourinho Launches Attack on Refereeing in Spain After Madrid Derby Loss

- Real Madrid's head coach José Mourinho criticized the performance of the referees in the match against Atlético Madrid, which ended in favor of the latter with a score of 1/2 at the "Metropolitano" stadium on Sunday. The referee Miguel Ortiz Arias showed a red card to Dean Hausen, the defender of the "Merengues," in the 52nd minute for bringing down and pulling the opponent's striker by the arm inside the box.

In a press conference after the match, Mourinho displayed images of controversial refereeing situations, as he called for the expulsion of two players from the opposing team. The Portuguese coach said: "We can skip the conference because the story of the match is here (before he shows two pictures), two clear red cards, the difficulties we faced after playing with a reduced number, I must limit myself to embracing my players who gave everything they had and presented a first half full of spirit and strong character, after that, who should be happy of course besides Atlético fans because they got the points, is the refereeing appointment committee," he said.

He added: "Everything was very strange, the first thing is that a week before the match it was known who the referee would be, while, as I was told, it should be known only 24 hours before, then, he is a 41-year-old referee and not an international one, which means he is not a great referee, the poor guy came here and couldn't handle the pressure," as he expressed. He continued: "Mr. Trujillo, who was responsible for the VAR technology, who called the referee (for the first red card incident) and I believe he did not call him for a second case that was clearer than the first, has a long history in VAR technology in Real Madrid matches," according to him.

The 63-year-old explained: "I thought I would find La Liga different from the league I left, I was told no, and they explained to me why it was not different from the league I left years ago, but we will fight, the boys leave sad, but with their coach's embrace, because I respect very much what they feel on the pitch." With Real Madrid's points stopping at 15 behind Barcelona, who reached 21 points, Mourinho said: "Of course we want to be in first place and we do not want to be in second, third, or fourth place, we want to get more points than we currently have, that is clear."

Currently, Real Madrid is in fourth place behind the leading Barcelona, Real Betis, and Atlético Madrid.