"The result is extremely unfair"

POST-MATCH

José Mourinho considered the result of Benfica-Rio Ave (1-1), a postponed match from round 1 of the Liga Betclic played on Tuesday, September 23, at Estádio da Luz, to be “terrible” and “extremely unfair” for his players.

A PAINFUL OUTCOME

"First, I think the result is extremely unfair. One team wanted to win, one team wanted a draw. I think the result is unfair, especially given what we did in the second half, but we were penalized with a result that is obviously terrible, against an opponent who scored a fantastic goal, from a technical point of view, with their only shot on goal. But I have to look at the goal from the perspective of Benfica's coach. And you can't concede that goal in the 90th minute, after playing 45 minutes of good quality, good intensity, so much creativity, so many high ball recoveries, so many transitions, a tremendous effort. Changes in the team's structure and playing philosophy. We did everything to win. We scored the goal, you can't concede a goal when you're winning 1-0 with a couple of minutes to go. You can concede a goal at that moment, but it has to be a different goal. You can't concede a goal where the ball carrier, who, if I'm not mistaken, will be Enzo [Barrenechea] or [Richard] Ríos, but one of the two, and there are six players ahead of the ball line. Leading 1-0 in the 90th minute, having the ball carrier plus six—that's seven players—in an offensive position, and having only three [defending] is naïve, it shows a lack of overall experience, a lack of understanding of the game, because at that moment we should have done what we did during the first half, which was to pass the ball around without any purpose and without any danger. What we did wrong in the first half was what we should have done from the moment we scored the goal. So it hurts. The result hurts, the injustice of it hurts, and the way we conceded the goal hurts. But clearly, in the first half we had possession, but without much purpose. In the second half, mainly with the change in structure, with the two players who came on, the team started to play differently, started to have much more purpose, started to create. He scores a goal that, as I said in the flash interview, if this is football today, if a goal is disallowed because a little toe was stepped on or a shirt was pulled, I don't like this football today. If this is football today, I don't like this football today. He ends up being the protagonist of the game, the man who was at Cidade do Futebol, calling the referee to see what we all saw, and then it's the referee who lacks personality, which they usually do, and they usually follow what VAR tells them. When I saw the referee being called to the VAR, I knew the goal would be disallowed. Regardless, we played against a super-defensive team, which I obviously don't criticize, I'm just saying. It was difficult to break through, but in the second half we did everything we could to break through, and we did. We are not a team with a strong presence in the box, we are not a team that can dominate and cross, cross, cross, because we are not a team with a strong physical presence or the characteristics to play that kind of game in the box. We tried to break through in other ways, we succeeded, we scored a good goal, and then, as I said, the result is extremely unfair. But soccer does not sympathize with this analysis of injustice; it is the result that counts, and we lost two important points."

DETERMINATION TO WIN OVERCOMES PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS

"I think today it was the desire to win, the desire to do things well, the desire to give everything, the desire to be Benfica in the sense of ‘let's go all out to the limit’. I think that's what helped us hide some of our physical limitations. They played two days ago, and the way their work was managed after the ‘non-pre-season’ is something I can't quite figure out, and it's hard to understand the consequences. Now, with this accumulation of games, with games every two days, obviously there were players who felt they lacked a little freshness. I didn't want to change either, I wanted to keep the same team, I wanted to give a certain continuity to what we did in the first game, but regardless of everything, they gave it their all until the end. The game wasn't over when we scored, but I think that, perhaps, in their minds, that goal was the winning goal, and then, instead of changing their mindset and getting into that dynamic of now holding on, I don't mean holding on defensively, but holding on by positioning better, that was the mistake we made in the second half."

THERE IS STILL A LOT OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEFT

"[How did you feel about the fans supporting you?] I don't feel in the game, I work in the game, and I can't afford to be concerned with feeling. Honestly, I didn't feel it. I was the first to say “not consensual,” so I don't need you to repeat it to me, because I was the first to say it myself. It's very difficult to be consensual, and honestly I didn't think I was, nor is it something that obviously concerns me, because it's not something I can control. The only thing I can control is the way I devote myself to my work, and the way I make those who work with me, including the players, always work to their limits. Whether we have what it takes or not, we'll see at the end of the Championship. Right now, if I'm not mistaken, we are four points behind FC Porto and perhaps one or two points behind Sporting, something like that, considering that these three teams are the contenders, with all due respect to SC Braga and Vitória de Guimarães, who are great teams, but I don't know if they consider themselves contenders for the title or not. However, there is still a long way to go, a lot to do."

THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST HALF

"For me, several parties are responsible. Rio Ave is responsible, and I repeat that this is not a criticism, but Rio Ave is responsible for the strategy it used, especially on an emotional level, the strategy it used to stop the game, slow down the game, stop the game, slow down the game. The referee is responsible, and I told him that at halftime. I don't want to talk about technical decisions, but why doesn't a referee give a yellow card to a goalkeeper in the 15th minute, in the 20th minute? Why not? Because if that happens, it's a different game. It's a different game, a completely different game. Referees also have responsibilities, like us, in terms of the quality of the games. They have to defend football, and defending soccer means fighting against this type of strategy, which I have also used, and may use again someday, but referees have that kind of responsibility. And then there's our responsibility, as we moved around a lot against a team of five. Playing with five players, it is very difficult to make radical changes in the center of the game, it is very difficult because they have the whole width occupied. We had little inside play; we recovered balls and, instead of recovering and immediately moving forward, we immediately played backwards; little speed on the ball, with fantastic grass to play fast; little inside play; the right side had difficulty getting the game going, which was also my fault because I chose to play with this team, and Lukebakio was also unable to play much more than he did. In the second half, we started to speed up, we gave more width, we put a lot of people in scoring positions, even though, I repeat, we are not a team with a big presence in the box, with great box players, that's not our profile, but I'm very happy with the second half. If I could have made the game end with our goal, I would have been super happy with the second half."