Why did Real Madrid manager José Mourinho bring A4 sheets to press conference?

Real Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho gestures while sitting on the bench during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Atlético Madrid defeated Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday. Real manager José Mourinho was displeased with the refereeing decisions and brought a couple of A4 sheets to the press conference after the game, which showed pictures of harsh tackles made by Atlético Madrid players on the visitors.

The challenges of Cristian Romero on Jude Bellingham, and a challenge from Lee Kang-in on Federico Valverde, which Mourinho opined should have been red cards.

“We can skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here,” Mourinho said, showing the A4 sheets.

“Those were two clear red cards. Given the difficulties we faced afterwards playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like.”

Incidentally, Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen received a red card in the 52nd minute, leaving Real with 10 players for the rest of the afternoon.

“So I’ll just have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all and played a first half, showed great class and character, setting us up perfectly to win the second half,” Mourinho observed.

Mourinho said the referee for the game was inexperienced and could not cope with the pressure.

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“They’ve put a referee, aged 41, with no international experience – it’s certainly not because he’s a great referee,” Mourinho said.

“Then the poor chap has come here and hasn’t been able to cope with the pressure – and it really is intense pressure. I call it ’80s-style pressure’ here in this stadium, which you hardly ever see these days,” he added.

With the defeat, Real Madrid are six points behind defending La Liga champions Barcelona. But Mourinho believes there is still long way to go in the title race.

“If they just leave us in peace and let us compete on a level playing field with everyone else, we’ve still got a long way to go,” he added.

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“I don’t want to go so far as to say this was set up… I want to believe that they simply made a mistake.”