‘That’s football’: Espanyol boss Gonzalez dismisses Mourinho’s Vinicius Junior complaint

Espanyol manager Manolo Gonzalez says the challenges made on Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during their La Liga opener were normal and insists his side did not deliberately target the Brazil international.

Responding to comments from Jose Mourinho about Vinicius Junior being subjected to excessive attention, Gonzalez said: “Fuck, how can we not touch him… this is football. I did not see any excessive challenge. At the moment, there are no incidents that involve danger for the player. The fouls he suffered were normal, and nobody went looking for him. These are things that happen during the game, as happened with other players.”

Gonzalez said he was proud of Espanyol’s performance despite the defeat by Real Madrid in the opening round of the league season. He praised his players’ organisation and effort, although he acknowledged that the team eventually ran out of energy.

“Until the 70th minute, it was as we had trained, and then it was not so much,” Gonzalez said at his post-match news conference. “I think we defended against them very well, and the two goals came from two mistakes by us, while the danger came from the talent of their players and Mbappe’s runs. In general, we defended and attacked well until we ran out of fuel.”

The Espanyol manager also criticised what he viewed as inconsistent refereeing standards, while making clear that he did not believe the officials had decided the outcome.

“The refereeing did not affect the match at any point, and what bothers me is the standards,” he said. “Every time we took a throw-in, it was given against us, while it was not given against them even once. The same thing happened with fouls from which we were trying to launch counter-attacks, because the fouls were not awarded against them.

“The refereeing did not affect the match, but the standards have to be somewhat normal. When one situation is a foul and in the opposite direction it is not, it drives you crazy.”

Gonzalez added that Espanyol were unable to apply the same pressure on the referee as some other teams or players.

“We cannot do that,” he said. “There are players who are allowed more than others. Pol Lozano complained once and received a yellow card. With other players from other teams, that does not happen.”

The coach believes Espanyol have made clear progress defensively since pre-season, when he felt they were vulnerable.

“The team has improved defensively,” Gonzalez said. “In pre-season we were weak, and that was also our fault. In the match against Levante we were very good, and today against Real Madrid we were very good as well.

“The team was good, and the unfortunate thing was conceding that damn goal in the final minute.”

Despite the result, Gonzalez maintained that Espanyol’s display against Real Madrid represented another step forward. His assessment was that the team had largely contained the league’s leading attacking threats, with individual errors and the quality of Real Madrid’s players ultimately proving decisive.