Jose Mourinho brings pictures to press conference to prove Atletico Madrid deserved red cards against Real Madrid

Jose Mourinho blamed Spain’s refereeing committee, the CTA, for assigning the match to Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias, who he said “could not handle the pressure.” | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Real Madrid manager brought pictures to the post-match press conference and lashed out at the referees’ committee after his side suffered a 1-2 loss against city rival Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano Stadium on Sunday.

The result meant that Real dropped to third in the table with 15 points, six behind leader Barcelona and one behind second-placed Atletico.

Using printed images, Mourinho stated that Atletico’s Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in should have been sent off for dangerous fouls on Jude Bellingham and Federico Valverde in the first half.

Real itself was reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Dean Huijsen fouled Giuliano Simeone to give away a penalty, which was converted by Alejandro Grimaldo before Jonathan David doubled the lead six minutes later.

“We could skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here,” Mourinho said, pointing to the pictures. “They were two clear red cards.”

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The Real boss blamed Spain’s refereeing committee, the CTA, for assigning the match to Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias, who Mourinho said “could not handle the pressure.”

“The ones who should be really happy are the referee appointment committee, because everything was very strange. They assigned a referee who, at 41, has never been an international (referee), so it’s clearly not because he’s a great referee,” he said.

Mourinho also claimed that the match’s VAR referee, Daniel Jesus Trujillo, has “history” with Madrid. “This combination... a referee, a poor referee, who has only done tiny little matches, and a VAR official with a big history... well, congratulations to the referee appointment committee,” Mourinho said.