Mourinho demands answers over VAR decision before Real Madrid face Inter Milan

Jose Mourinho says Real Madrid’s UEFA Champions League meeting with Inter Milan at Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday will be emotionally significant before kick-off, but insists those feelings will disappear once the match begins.

Mourinho will face the club he previously led to a historic treble, including the Champions League title, when Real Madrid begin their league-phase campaign against the Italian side.

Asked whether the fixture would be emotional, Mourinho said: “After the game, yes. During the game, no. During the game, it is just another match.”

The Portuguese manager also returned to comments he made after Real Madrid’s La Liga defeat by Real Betis, when he described his players as “naive”. Mourinho had been referring to what he believed was their failure to show referees when they had been fouled or pulled, unlike the Andalusian side.

He stressed that the word was not intended as criticism.

“It is also about the cultural aspect. Perhaps my word ‘naive’ was understood as something negative, but I did not say it as criticism. I was describing reality as it was. Tomorrow, you will understand very well what I meant. You will understand it very easily,” Mourinho said.

When a journalist asked him to explain further, Mourinho declined to discuss refereeing standards directly but used the opportunity to question the handling of a penalty during the defeat by Real Betis.

“I do not want to talk about the refereeing standard. Forgive me, because I will avoid your question, but I will answer in another way,” he said.

“Since this question was not asked of me, I will say it now: we lost against Betis because we did not turn our attacking output into goals. That is the end of it. But the penalty… why was it not retaken? Was it because VAR did not know the laws of the game… or because it did not want to? That is something I would like the officials to answer.”

Mourinho questioned why the video assistant referee had not intervened if the penalty had been taken while a player was inside the area.

“If VAR did not ask for the penalty to be retaken because it did not know the law, then it should leave and give up the job. If it did not ask for it because it did not want to, that is even worse,” he said.

“And there is something worse than that: if it did not know the law, why did it not call the referee to the review screen? It is a little strange.”

Mourinho said he preferred to assume that the officials had not realised the player was inside the penalty area. However, he argued that any such error should have been corrected by VAR rather than left to the referee.

“I want to proceed in good faith and assume that he did not know the player was inside the penalty area. I prefer to explain it that way. But if that is the reason, the referee is not the person who should make the decision; VAR should do it. Because in a few weeks or months, if a similar situation happens, the penalty will be retaken,” he added.

The former Inter manager made clear that he did not believe the decision alone had cost Real Madrid the match.

“I want to make it clear that we did not lose because of this incident, because we might have missed the penalty even if it had been retaken. But as Real Madrid’s coach, and as someone who works in football, I would like to know why the penalty was not retaken. I want the officials to answer me on this matter,” Mourinho said.

He also questioned the yellow card shown to Real Madrid captain Vinicius Junior after the forward approached the referee.

“There is another matter in this match which has nothing to do with the previous incident: why did the Real Madrid captain receive a yellow card? When Vinicius went towards the referee, before he reached him, the referee showed him the card. I would like to know why,” Mourinho said.

“Why are we always told that the team captain has the right to approach the referee, politely, to ask for clarification or an explanation? Forgive me for using your question to talk about this, but I wanted to comment on that decision.”

Despite his strong focus on officiating, Mourinho said his thoughts before Tuesday’s match would not distract him from the task of trying to beat Inter.

“At this moment, it is not an ordinary match for me, as I said before. After the game it will be, but during it, no,” he said.

“I do not think that during the game anyone will talk about the person sitting on the Real Madrid bench. During the match, I will not think about anything from the past. Chivu, Inter Milan’s manager, will always be one of my boys. I am very happy for him and for what he is achieving. I will greet him before the game and afterwards. But during the game… it is just the match.”