Atletico Madrid have hit back at Real Madrid’s criticism of refereeing decisions during Sunday’s derby.
Jose Mourinho arrived at the post-match press conference with prints showing two incidents he believed should have resulted in red cards for Atletico players.
The former Chelsea manager blamed the officials for key mistakes in the match, which Real lost 2-1.
On Monday, Atletico put up two posts on their X account, the first a video showing a piece of paper being typed with the words ‘#StopAcosoArbitalYA’, meaning “stop harassing the referee now”.
A second post showed an image of Mourinho at the press conference with the same message.
What happened on Sunday?
Mourinho held the photos of the two interventions in the media after Real’s defeat.
Mourinho harshly criticized the officials and was angry with the Atletico defender Cristian Romeroit was not sent for a stamp Jude Bellingham.
He also complained about a challenge from Lee Kang-in IN Federico Valverdebefore the visitors were reduced to 10 men five minutes into the first half.
“We can skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here,” Mourinho said, holding up images in what was the start of a nearly five-minute rant.
“They were two clear red cards. The difficulties we’ve faced since the sending off – 11 v 10 – well, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 v nine would have been like if justice had been done.”
The true protector Dean Huijsen was fired for falling Giuliano Simeone inside the area as the last defender, allowing Alejandro Grimaldo to score with a low spot kick.
Jonathan David doubled Atletico’s lead six minutes later, with Antonio Rudiger heading in a late penalty to reduce the deficit.
Mourinho said he could only “embrace” his players after what he described as a first half “full of class and great character”, but he directed sharp criticism at referee Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias and those who appointed him.
“They have put in a referee, 41 years old, with no international experience – of course it’s not because he’s a great referee,” Mourinho said.
“Then the poor lad came here and couldn’t handle the pressure – and it’s really intense pressure. I call it ’80s-style pressure’ here in this stadium, which you hardly ever see these days.”
Asked about six points behind Barcelona, Mourinho offered an emphatic answer.
“If they leave us alone and let us compete on a level playing field with everyone else, we still have a long way to go,” he said.
“I don’t want to go so far as to say this was made up… I want to believe they just made a mistake.”
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Former Spurs captain Cristian Romero avoided a red card in the Madrid derby after making the challenge on Jude Bellingham.
“A derby marked by a weak referee”, says Real Madrid
Real Madrid also released an official match report after full-time, which echoed Mourinho’s views.
The La Liga club claimed the defeat was “marked by poor refereeing”.
“Real Madrid lost at the Metropolitano in a derby marred by the poor judgment of Ortiz Arias, who failed to send off Cuti Romero in the first half for stepping on Jude Bellingham’s knee (despite watching the game on a monitor) and Kang-In Lee for striking Valverde’s left ankle.
“Both decisions shaped the match, which was decided in the second half in favor of Atletico.
“Until the 30th minute, the match had very few dangerous plays, but from that moment the derby took over controversy.
“In the 35th minute, during a contested ball, Bellingham reached the ball in front of Cuti Romero and the Atletico defender stuck the sticks in the left knee of the Madrid player. Ortiz Arias initially punished our player, but was called by Trujillo Suarez to review the incident on the monitor.
“After watching the replay, he took away the card from Bellingham and gave the Atletico defender a yellow card instead of sending him off.
“Nine minutes later, the referee made another crucial error by not penalizing Kang-In Lee for a challenge on Valverde, where he butted him on the left ankle.
“Ortiz Arias was close to the incident, but did not receive a red card (or even a yellow card) for the Atlético player, was not even signaled by Trujillo Suarez on this occasion.”
