Mourinho: “We are going to compete, and we want to beat Inter”

José Mourinho appeared in the press room at Ciudad Real Madrid and analyzed the debut in this edition of the Champions League, where our team will face Inter Milan at the Bernabéu (Tuesday, 9:00 pm CEST; Orange TV and Movistar Plus+): “I want to win. I could tell you I want to play well, but I don’t want to play well like we did against Betis and lose; I want to win. We are in a phase where we play eight matches, and the goal is to qualify, and I believe we will. But I want to think about this match as a unique game and not that we will have seven more. I want to win.”

“I’ve seen the players as I like to see them—exhausted in the locker room in Seville after the match, fairly recovered in Sunday’s training, and today perfectly normal. After analyzing the game we played, we are increasingly convinced that we played a good match, we played as a team, and the goals we missed were an anomaly. We are fine. Obviously, we have known issues for tomorrow’s match, but that’s it. We are going to play, compete, and aim to win.”

Memories at the Bernabéu in the Champions League
“At the Bernabéu, I’ve won a Champions League, and I’ve lost a semifinal on penalties. I’ve experienced the best and the worst in this stadium, but I’m not thinking about that, neither the positives nor the negatives. I’m focused on being the coach of Real Madrid and on tomorrow’s Champions League match. It’s not an ultra-important match because it doesn’t decide anything—it’s not a knockout game, nor is it a group stage like before with four teams. There are seven matches, and I believe both we and Inter will qualify. I see a great possibility for Madrid and Inter in the future, once things start to get very serious. Tomorrow’s match is just one of those games where every point matters, and surely a top team like Inter will come looking for their points, just as we will try to do.”

His words about the players
“Maybe I’ve been interpreted in a negative way; I don’t know. But I say this not so much as criticism but more as an observation. And tomorrow, you’ll understand what I mean. Tomorrow, it will be very clear to you.”

The absences and the option of Tren in midfield
“I’m not going to comment on that, forgive me. I could spend five minutes here going around in circles. I’m being honest with you, and obviously, these three players are out due to suspension. I don’t know if the calendar algorithm spoke Italian or not, but the algorithm chose this match to be played in this situation. Your question is obvious; it’s the question I was expecting. But we have 3, 4, or 5 options. We could sit here and discuss all of them, but ultimately, I’m not going to tell you anything.”

Is it a special match?
“After the match, yes. During the match, no. During the match, it’s just another game.”

Would winning the Champions League with Madrid be special?
“At Real Madrid, there are two different periods. I finished my work here in 2013. We won what we won, and we lost what we lost. We gave everything, but it’s a closed chapter. This has nothing to do with the past—absolutely nothing. These are two different moments in Real Madrid’s history. In 2010, they hadn’t reached the quarterfinals in years, nor had they played a semifinal in many years. Now, it’s a Real Madrid that has won in the last ten years. These are two different moments, but it doesn’t change my way of thinking. If you ask me if I’m excited about winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, obviously yes, but completely separate from any context of not having achieved it previously.”

Playing against Inter and his former player Chivu
“It’s nothing more than a regular match, though afterward, it won’t be. At Inter, they see me as a friend, no doubt. Before and after, but during, I don’t think they’ll look at me as a friend while I’m the coach of Real Madrid. It’ll be a pleasure to play against them, even though there aren’t many from my time there. But I’ll love seeing people who support Inter before or after the match. I want to win, and there won’t be time to think about things from a very beautiful past. Chivu is one of mine, the team is one of mine, and it always will be. I love him very much, and I’m delighted that things are going well for him. It’ll be a pleasure to hug him before the match and after the match, but not during. I’ll remember the fact that between us, there’s such an important past.”

What kind of club have you found?
“A club that is always Real Madrid, and I think that’s all I can say. Real Madrid is Real Madrid. It had a fairly complicated season in the past, and when you have tough seasons, of course, there are many things to improve. One of these is working from a base of stability, as opposed to working from a base of problems, which is what you encounter. This is the case: we always want to win. We want to win tomorrow, every match, and every competition. When you compare, for example, with Inter Milan, it’s not the same because we’re talking about an example of stability. We’re talking about a team that, even though they’ve changed coaches in the last six or seven years, is a team with stability—the dynamics, the structure, the market… stability in the end. So, Real Madrid must try to reach this level of stability. But it’s true that in the end, Real Madrid is Real Madrid, and the goal is to win.”

Match against Betis
“I don’t want to talk about refereeing criteria. And maybe this isn’t the answer to your question. Forgive me for dodging your question and answering it in another way, but since this question hasn’t come up, I’ll use yours to go in that direction. We lost against Betis because we didn’t convert the offensive production the team had into goals. But the penalty—why wasn’t it retaken? Was it not retaken because VAR doesn’t know the rules, or because VAR didn’t want to? This is something that, as Madrid’s coach, I’d like the responsible people to answer because if VAR didn’t call for the penalty to be retaken out of ignorance of the rules, then they should go home and not do VAR.”

“If VAR didn’t call for it to be retaken because they didn’t want to, that’s even worse. And there’s a third question: why didn’t they at least call the referee? If they didn’t know the rules, why didn’t they call the referee to check the monitor? It’s a bit strange. I want to assume honesty and think they didn’t know the rules—I prefer to assume honesty. But if that’s the case, then they can’t be the referee or the VAR because, in a week, or in a month or two, in a similar situation, the penalty will be retaken. And I want to make it very clear that we didn’t lose because of this because maybe we could have even missed the retaken penalty. But as the coach of Real Madrid and of football in an important professional competition, I’d like to know why the penalty wasn’t retaken. And I’d like the responsible people to answer that.”

“The other thing about this match that has nothing to do with the result is why the captain of Real Madrid received a yellow card. When Vinicius did this (pointing to the captain’s armband) and approached the referee, he was shown a yellow card before even getting there. I’d also like to know why. We’re always told that the captain has the right, politely and non-aggressively, to approach the referee to ask for some kind of explanation.”

Memories at the Bernabéu in the Champions League
“At the Bernabéu, I’ve won a Champions League, and I’ve lost a semifinal on penalties. I’ve experienced the best and the worst in this stadium, but I’m not thinking about that, neither the positives nor the negatives. I’m focused on being the coach of Real Madrid and on tomorrow’s Champions League match. It’s not an ultra-important match because it doesn’t decide anything—it’s not a knockout game, nor is it a group stage like before with four teams. There are seven matches, and I believe both we and Inter will qualify. I see a great possibility for Madrid and Inter in the future, once things start to get very serious. Tomorrow’s match is just one of those games where every point matters, and surely a top team like Inter will come looking for their points, just as we will try to do.”

His words about the players
“Maybe I’ve been interpreted in a negative way; I don’t know. But I say this not so much as criticism but more as an observation. And tomorrow, you’ll understand what I mean. Tomorrow, it will be very clear to you.”

The absences and the option of Tren in midfield
“I’m not going to comment on that, forgive me. I could spend five minutes here going around in circles. I’m being honest with you, and obviously, these three players are out due to suspension. I don’t know if the calendar algorithm spoke Italian or not, but the algorithm chose this match to be played in this situation. Your question is obvious; it’s the question I was expecting. But we have 3, 4, or 5 options. We could sit here and discuss all of them, but ultimately, I’m not going to tell you anything.”

Is it a special match?
“After the match, yes. During the match, no. During the match, it’s just another game.”

Would winning the Champions League with Madrid be special?
“At Real Madrid, there are two different periods. I finished my work here in 2013. We won what we won, and we lost what we lost. We gave everything, but it’s a closed chapter. This has nothing to do with the past—absolutely nothing. These are two different moments in Real Madrid’s history. In 2010, they hadn’t reached the quarterfinals in years, nor had they played a semifinal in many years. Now, it’s a Real Madrid that has won in the last ten years. These are two different moments, but it doesn’t change my way of thinking. If you ask me if I’m excited about winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, obviously yes, but completely separate from any context of not having achieved it previously.”

Playing against Inter and his former player Chivu
“It’s nothing more than a regular match, though afterward, it won’t be. At Inter, they see me as a friend, no doubt. Before and after, but during, I don’t think they’ll look at me as a friend while I’m the coach of Real Madrid. It’ll be a pleasure to play against them, even though there aren’t many from my time there. But I’ll love seeing people who support Inter before or after the match. I want to win, and there won’t be time to think about things from a very beautiful past. Chivu is one of mine, the team is one of mine, and it always will be. I love him very much, and I’m delighted that things are going well for him. It’ll be a pleasure to hug him before the match and after the match, but not during. I’ll remember the fact that between us, there’s such an important past.”

What kind of club have you found?
“A club that is always Real Madrid, and I think that’s all I can say. Real Madrid is Real Madrid. It had a fairly complicated season in the past, and when you have tough seasons, of course, there are many things to improve. One of these is working from a base of stability, as opposed to working from a base of problems, which is what you encounter. This is the case: we always want to win. We want to win tomorrow, every match, and every competition. When you compare, for example, with Inter Milan, it’s not the same because we’re talking about an example of stability. We’re talking about a team that, even though they’ve changed coaches in the last six or seven years, is a team with stability—the dynamics, the structure, the market… stability in the end. So, Real Madrid must try to reach this level of stability. But it’s true that in the end, Real Madrid is Real Madrid, and the goal is to win.”

Match against Betis
“I don’t want to talk about refereeing criteria. And maybe this isn’t the answer to your question. Forgive me for dodging your question and answering it in another way, but since this question hasn’t come up, I’ll use yours to go in that direction. We lost against Betis because we didn’t convert the offensive production the team had into goals. But the penalty—why wasn’t it retaken? Was it not retaken because VAR doesn’t know the rules, or because VAR didn’t want to? This is something that, as Madrid’s coach, I’d like the responsible people to answer because if VAR didn’t call for the penalty to be retaken out of ignorance of the rules, then they should go home and not do VAR.”

“If VAR didn’t call for it to be retaken because they didn’t want to, that’s even worse. And there’s a third question: why didn’t they at least call the referee? If they didn’t know the rules, why didn’t they call the referee to check the monitor? It’s a bit strange. I want to assume honesty and think they didn’t know the rules—I prefer to assume honesty. But if that’s the case, then they can’t be the referee or the VAR because, in a week, or in a month or two, in a similar situation, the penalty will be retaken. And I want to make it very clear that we didn’t lose because of this because maybe we could have even missed the retaken penalty. But as the coach of Real Madrid and of football in an important professional competition, I’d like to know why the penalty wasn’t retaken. And I’d like the responsible people to answer that.”

“The other thing about this match that has nothing to do with the result is why the captain of Real Madrid received a yellow card. When Vinicius did this (pointing to the captain’s armband) and approached the referee, he was shown a yellow card before even getting there. I’d also like to know why. We’re always told that the captain has the right, politely and non-aggressively, to approach the referee to ask for some kind of explanation.”

Endrick
“Tomorrow he might be ready to play five minutes, ten at most, and that's it. He trained for the first time with the team yesterday, he hasn't played since Budapest or Austria in a friendly match, and he is not in condition for more than five or ten minutes. But since we have more space on the bench, because there are 12 players and we don’t have all of them, he is there and maybe he will get some minutes. He is an attacking player and will play in attack.”

Relationship with Chivu
“He has been my player, we worked together, we went through so many things together... There are former players who, without experience, go on to coach top-level teams, and some are good while others are not. He is succeeding. Who did you talk to on the phone yesterday? Your mother, your father, your friend? Do you want to know who I talk to? We don’t have anything to clarify, there’s nothing to clarify. A hug tomorrow before the match, another hug at the end of the match, and during the match, let’s see what happens.”

 

Disclaimer: Translation generated by artificial intelligence. It may contain inaccuracies.