Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid's coach, confirmed that he did not find an explanation for his team's loss to Real Betis with an unanswered goal on Friday evening in the Spanish League, pointing out that his team played a great match, was the better team, and clearly deserved to win.
Real Madrid suffered its first defeat in the current season, falling to its host Real Betis 0-1 on Friday evening in the fourth round of the Spanish Football League.
The goalless draw dominated the outcome of the match until the 81st minute, when Troy Parrott snatched the fatal winning goal for Betis.
It seemed that the Royal Club was on its way to grabbing an exciting draw when newcomer Carlos Espe scored a goal three minutes before the end, but the referee canceled the goal after returning to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology.
In stoppage time for the match, the referee awarded a penalty kick in favor of Real Madrid, but French sniper Kylian Mbappe missed it.
Mourinho said after the match: “Sometimes you lose, and you don’t know why? Or how do you explain it? The team played a great match, and we were the dominant side. The defense line also played a strong match and controlled almost everything. We created a lot of chances, and if the match had ended in a draw, we would have felt frustrated, because we gave more, so imagine how we feel after the defeat!”
He added: “I think we had possession of the ball, even though possession meant nothing, and we created a lot of chances. “Maybe we shot 10, 15 or 18 times, I don’t know, and we wasted three chances, while the opposing team’s goalkeeper made 4 great saves.”
He explained in statements to the official website of Real Madrid: “I do not know why we lost, and I cannot justify it.”
Mourinho touched on his description of Real Madrid players as “naive” compared to Betis players, explaining that he did not mean their lack of intelligence on the field, but rather their different dealings with the referee’s decisions. Pointing out that Betis players tried to influence the referee in the simplest details.
Mourinho refused to hold the referee responsible for the defeat, stressing that he had not seen in detail the controversial cases related to the penalty kick, its re-execution, and the goal scored by Carlos Espe. He said that he prefers a referee who allows play to continue, and will not use arbitral decisions to justify the loss.
Mourinho praised Espy, considering him a player “with great potential,” stressing that he did his best and scored a goal before it was cancelled.
Regarding the penalty kick missed by Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, Mourinho stressed that the player should not be held responsible, explaining: “When a player goes to take a penalty kick, we all go with him,” confirming that he bears collective responsibility for the result.
Mourinho's team failed to achieve its first victory at Betis in La Liga since 2021, after three draws and a loss. He continued: “I have nothing to blame my players for. "We may have deserved to win, but that doesn't give you any points." This loss for Los Blancos comes four days before the opening of its Champions League campaign, when it hosts Inter Milan on Tuesday at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, seeking to win its 16th title.
