Coach Jose Mourinho criticized the referee and VAR after Real Madrid lost to Atletico Madrid 1-2 in the Madrid derby. He said that the home team should have received "2 clear red cards".
Alejandro Grimaldo put Atletico Madrid ahead from the penalty spot in the second half, after Dean Huijsen received a red card for fouling Giuliano Simeone. Jonathan David then doubled the gap before Antonio Rudiger scored to narrow the score to 1-2 in the final minutes. This defeat caused Real Madrid to drop to fourth place in the La Liga standings.
However, the focus of the post-match press conference was the decisions of referee Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias and the VAR team run by Daniel Trujillo Suarez.
Mourinho specifically mentioned two situations in the first half. Cristian Romero of Atletico Madrid only received a yellow card after stepping on Jude Bellingham's knee, while Lee Kang-in was not penalized with a card after a strong tackle on Federico Valverde.
Mourinho brought printed photos of these two situations into the press conference room and raised them in front of reporters.
The story of the match lies here. Those are clearly 2 red cards. With the difficulties we encountered afterwards, when there were only 11 people playing against 10 people, you can imagine what the situation would be like if we had to play 50 minutes with 11 people playing against 9 people" - Mourinho said.
Mourinho also targeted the Spanish Refereeing Board (CTA) when questioning whether Ortiz Arias was chosen to officiate the derby.
Referee Ortiz Arias, at the age of 41, has no international experience. I don't understand why he was chosen as a referee. This referee came here and couldn't stand the pressure" - Mourinho said.
He continued to criticize VAR, saying that referees working in the VAR room do not have to bear the same pressure as referees on the field: "For VAR, there is no pressure. Or maybe there is, but we don't know. An inexperienced referee combined with an experienced VAR. Congratulations CTA" - Mourinho said.
After the match, Real Madrid announced that Federico Valverde suffered a serious injury to his left ankle after Lee Kang-in's tackle. The Uruguayan midfielder will undergo further tests to determine the extent of the injury.
Mourinho said he has not reviewed the situation leading to Huijsen's red card. However, he continued to mention some controversial decisions in recent matches featuring Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
The penalty for Atletico in the match against Real Sociedad is ridiculous. The penalty in the match against Barcelona is also the same, while not being sent off in the match against Athletic Bilbao is also confusing. Too many such situations have happened" - Mourinho added.
Real Madrid entered the international holiday with 15 points after 7 matches, 6 points behind the leading team Barcelona.
When asked about the opportunity to compete for the championship, Mourinho said that Real Madrid still has a lot of time and hopes the team will play in fair conditions.
Despite criticizing the referee's decisions, Mourinho also avoided asserting that there was an arrangement: "I don't want to say that this was staged. I want to think that those are mistakes, just like a coach also makes mistakes. They made mistakes, that's all".
On the other side, Diego Simeone refused to go deep into the referee's decisions and focused on Atletico Madrid's performance. According to Simeone, coaches like Mourinho, Hansi Flick, Manuel Pellegrini and he all need to be cautious with their statements.
