Jose Mourinho did not sit down at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano so much as present evidence. Real Madrid’s manager arrived at his post-match news conference on Sunday carrying a sheet of A4 paper bearing printed screenshots of two first-half incidents, laid it in front of the microphones and announced that the rest of the questions were unnecessary.
“The story of the game is here,” Mourinho said, tapping the page. “They’re two clear red cards.”
Real had just lost the Madrid derby 2-1, beaten by a 53rd-minute Alejandro Grimaldo penalty and Jonathan David’s finish six minutes later, with Antonio Rudiger’s 89th-minute header arriving too late to rescue anything. Atletico Madrid climbed to second in LaLiga on 16 points. Real dropped to fourth on 15, six behind an unbeaten Barcelona.
The two images on the page
The first screenshot showed Cristian Romero treading on Jude Bellingham’s knee, an offence for which the Atletico defender was booked by referee Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias. The second captured Lee Kang-in’s late challenge on Federico Valverde, which drew no card at all. Real Madrid later said Valverde had suffered severe trauma to his left ankle.
Mourinho’s argument was arithmetic as much as grievance. Dean Huijsen was sent off in the 52nd minute for bringing down Giuliano Simeone in the box, the foul that produced Grimaldo’s penalty and reduced Real to ten men for the remainder.
“With the difficulties we had afterwards — with 11 versus 10 — you could imagine what it would have been like for 50 minutes with 11 versus nine,” he said.
He was notably softer on Ortiz Arias, a 41-year-old with limited international experience, than on the system that appointed him. “The poor guy came here and couldn’t cope with the pressure,” Mourinho said, before widening his complaint well beyond one afternoon:
- Atletico’s penalty award at Real Sociedad, which he called “laughable”
- A penalty given to Barcelona, described in the same terms
- A non-sending off against Athletic Club
“If ‘they’ leave us in peace and let us compete on an even playing field, there’s a long way left,” he said. Asked about Huijsen’s dismissal — the one decision that went against his own team on the field — Mourinho said he had not seen a replay.
A familiar script, 13 years later
Anyone who watched Mourinho’s first Real Madrid spell between 2010 and 2013 will recognise the staging. That tenure delivered a LaLiga title with a record 100 points and 121 goals, and it ran on a permanent sense of institutional grievance, most of it aimed at officials and at Barcelona. It ended in May 2013 with a Copa del Rey final defeat to Atletico and a red card for Mourinho himself.
He returned on 11 June 2026, appointed on a three-year deal through to June 2029 after leaving Benfica, succeeding a caretaker arrangement under Alvaro Arbeloa. Sunday was his first meeting with Diego Simeone since 2014, when Mourinho’s Chelsea were eliminated by Atletico in the Champions League semi-finals. Simeone, characteristically, declined the bait, refusing to discuss refereeing at all and speaking instead about respect and responsibility. Spanish coverage of his response ran under the line: not everything goes, even for Mourinho.
The tactic has a real function. Printed screenshots convert a subjective complaint into something that looks like proof, and they hand the following day’s coverage a single image to run. Whether Romero’s stamp and Lee’s challenge met the threshold for dismissal is genuinely arguable; that argument, rather than a defeat, is now the story.
What it costs, and what comes next
Two defeats in seven matches is not a crisis, but the margin is already unhelpful. Barcelona have 21 points from seven and have not dropped a game. Six points in September is recoverable; six points compounded by suspensions and federation sanctions is less so, and Mourinho’s remarks about competing on “an even playing field” invite exactly that scrutiny from the Spanish federation’s competition committee.
The more immediate problem is Valverde. Real lose their most reliable two-way midfielder at the point in the calendar when Champions League fixtures start stacking against domestic ones, and Huijsen is suspended.
Mourinho, for his part, framed the season as long and the table as provisional — which it is, after seven rounds. The printed page will not change the result at the Metropolitano. It was never meant to. It was meant to make sure nobody discussed anything else, and by Monday morning, nobody was.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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