Jose Mourinho orders Benfica side to SLEEP at their training ground after cup semi-final defeat leads to fan protest outside stadium

Jose Mourinho has ordered his Benfica players to sleep at the club’s training ground after they were beaten by Braga in the Portuguese League Cup semi-finals.

Benfica suffered a 3-1 defeat on Wednesday night after being reduced to 10 men following the sending off of former Manchester City star Nicolas Otamendi.

Mourinho, furious at this players for squandering the opportunity of winning silverware, revealed he has ordered the squad to remain at the club’s training base in Seixal for the foreseeable future to ‘think a lot’ about the cup exit.

‘Look, today, thinking we were going to play the final, we’re not going home, we’re going to Seixal,’ he said on Thursday. ‘The players will sleep in Seixal, and there’s training tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. But there’s no game on Saturday. 

‘Since there’s no final on Saturday, our next game is against FC Porto next Wednesday. Upon arriving in Seixal, everyone will go to their rooms. I hope the players sleep as well as I do, which is to say, don’t sleep at all. 

‘That’s what I wish for them. That they don’t sleep and think a lot, like I’m going to think. And then, tomorrow, we can start talking, which isn’t what happened in the locker room. 

Benfica suffered a 3-1 defeat on Wednesday night after being reduced to 10 men following the sending off of former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi (red shirt, centre)

Angry fans appeared to express their fury over the inauguration of the 1904 Benfica Hotel on Rua do Jardim do Regedor, in Lisbon displaying a pretest banner soon after the game

‘In the locker room it was a monologue, and monologues don’t work for me; I like to have a dialogue with the players. We’ll talk about the differences between the first and second halves and prepare in the best way possible.

‘We’re shaping up the game against FC Porto. Without Otamendi, without Antonio Silva, and most likely without Enzo. But let’s go, thinking we can win the game.’

Soon after Wednesday’s defeat, which halted Benfica’s 11-game unbeaten streak under Mourinho, a protest banner was displayed by a group of angry supporters in Leiria. 

Fans appeared to express their fury over the inauguration of the 1904 Benfica Hotel on Rua do Jardim do Regedor, in Lisbon, which once housed the club’s historic headquarters. 

Protesting the decision made by Benfica president Rui Costa, the banner read: ‘After the hotel, let’s build a brothel. Screw the titles, all we want is concrete.’

Mourinho side, who sit third in the Portuguese top flight and 10 points behind leaders Porto, face the rival club in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup on Wednesday.