Overview
- Jose Mourinho held a pre-match press conference on Tuesday ahead of Real Madrid’s Champions League trip to his former club AS Roma and said he will treat the game as a normal fixture and be “back to normal” on Thursday morning.
- He renewed criticism of refereeing after Real Madrid’s 1-0 LaLiga win over Villarreal, refusing to comment immediately after that game and inviting reporters to review only the first part of the match to see his concerns.
- Mourinho specifically complained that referee assignments in Spain are effectively known weeks in advance instead of the stipulated 24 hours, calling that timing the main thing that bothers him.
- He defended the decision to use Federico Valverde at right-back against Villarreal as a pragmatic, one-off solution born of limited alternatives and said the move worked on the day.
- The comments come as Mourinho leads a summer return to Real Madrid to oversee a rebuild after two trophyless seasons and he said he expects both Real Madrid and Roma to progress from the group, a scenario that could pit him against his former club again later in the competition.