Jose Mourinho praises Real Madrid players and blasts referee after derby loss at Atletico

Jose Mourinho praises Real Madrid players and blasts referee after derby loss at Atletico Jose Mourinho praised his players despite Real Madrid losing 2-1 to Atletico Madrid on Sunday at the Metropolitano Stadium. The Portuguese boss said the players showed ‘great class and character’ and directed his anger at the referee for making key errors. Mourinho was furious Atletico defender Cristian Romero was not handed a red card for a stamp on Jude Bellingham in the first half. He also complained Lee Kang-in was not sent off for his challenge on Federico Valverde. In his post-match press conference, Mourinho said : “Those were two clear red cards. Given the difficulties we faced afterwards playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like. “So I’ll just have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all and played a first half, showed great class and character, setting us up perfectly to win the second half.” The turning point of the match came in the 50th minute when Dean Huijsen was dismissed for pulling down Giuliano Simeone inside the box. Alejandro Grimaldo converted the resulting penalty to put his side 1-0 ahead. Jonathan David continued his fine scoring form to double their advantage, sliding home Simeone’s cross in the 59th minute. Antonio Rudiger headed in Bernardo Silva’s free-kick to give the visitors late hope, but Atletico held on to secure a narrow victory. Big blow for Real The result leaves Los Blancos six points behind leaders Barcelona in the La Liga standings . They have not won a trophy for the last two seasons. The Spanish giants brought back Mourinho hoping the Portuguese will lead them to success this campaign. But the early signs are not encouraging, with the Madrid club losing two games already. Real suffered due to poor refereeing against Atletico, but the main reason they lost was their own performances. Huijsen was the main culprit, as his dismissal forced the team to play almost the entire second half with 10 men. But the others, apart from Bellingham, also deserve blame for the disappointing derby loss.