Atletico Madrid hit back at Jose Mourinho after Real Madrid derby criticism

Atletico Madrid responded to Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho after he criticised the referee following his side’s 2-1 defeat in the Madrid derby.

The Spanish league match was played at Riyadh Air Metropolitano in the seventh round of La Liga.

Atletico posted a message on Facebook reading: “Stop harassing referees now.”

The club accompanied the statement with an image carrying the same words, echoing Mourinho’s decision to hold up a printed image during his post-match news conference to illustrate his belief that the referee should have sent off two Atletico players.

The match was marked by controversy after Real Madrid appealed for two red cards against Atletico players. Real Madrid dropped to third in the table, six points behind leaders Barcelona.

Mourinho’s criticism

Mourinho said: “The referee did not have enough experience to manage the derby. He is only 41 and, poor guy, he could not deal with the pressure. He is a modest referee who has only taken charge of small matches. Congratulations to the refereeing committee for this appointment.

“As for the video assistant referee, he has a long history with Real Madrid in cup matches against Girona and Osasuna. He has a lot of history.”

He added: “There were two clear red cards for Atletico Madrid. We saw the difficulties we faced while playing with 10 against 11. Imagine the difficulties they would have had with 11 against nine.”

Mourinho said his players had given everything, adding: “All I can do is embrace my players. They played an excellent first half with real character and could easily have finished the match in the second half.

“We might say the poor referee could not handle the pressure, but the video assistant referee has a great deal of experience and was not under any pressure.”

He continued: “Of course I wanted to leave here with a win, but if we lost, I wanted to leave without being forced to say anything. I have been here for three months and I am not focused on refereeing, but there were two red cards against Elche despite us winning, and two more today. It is becoming a little more difficult. Congratulations to the refereeing appointments committee.”

On the incident involving Hausen, Mourinho said: “I admit I have not seen it yet and I was too far away to judge it. I do not know. Some people are telling me the foul began outside the penalty area. If that is the case, it should be a foul and a red card, with the score 0-0.

“If it happened inside the area, it is a penalty. If there was a clear shirt pull, then yes, it would be a red card. But all of that concerns the second half. In the first half, we are talking about a derby which should have been played 11 against nine. There are no miracles in football. We can imagine how the match might have ended, but honestly I have not seen the Hausen incident yet.”

Mourinho said Real Madrid still wanted to finish first and collect more points, but added: “As we always say, it is not about how you start but how you finish. It is the end of September and there is still a long way to go, but I do not want to go down this road again.”

He said he had expected La Liga to be different from the competition he had previously left, but had been told it was not and had been given reasons why.

Mourinho said his players’ feelings on the pitch were “not normal”, although he remained positive about the team’s performance despite the result.

He concluded: “If they leave us alone and allow us to compete on an equal footing with everyone, there is still a long way to go. I do not want to say it is arranged and I do not want to think that way. I want to believe they simply made a mistake, just as a manager or player can make a mistake. I want to believe the refereeing committee made a mistake.

“Has the league become suspicious because of the Negreira case? Negreira is no longer here, is he? Then the league is not suspicious because of that case.”