Jose Mourinho tears into referee as woeful Champions League record continues

Benfica lost 1-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday, as Jose Mourinho’s side continued their poor start to the competition, leaving them second-bottom of the table

Jose Mourinho sent a vintage parting shot to the referee in charge of Benfica’s 1-0 defeat at home to Bayer Leverkusen. Mourinho’s side suffered their fourth consecutive loss in the Champions League on Wednesday, leaving them second-bottom of the 36-team table at the halfway stage.

Benfica have also failed to score in Europe since the the former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham boss took charge in September. They were narrowly beaten by German opposition this week, with the Estadio da Luz emptying out long before the final whistle in a symbol of how dour the mood is at Benfica, who replaced Bruno Lage with Mourinho seven weeks ago.

Patrick Schick’s second-half header, courtesy of a mistake by Benfica’s 22-year-old left-back, Samuel Bahl, was all that separated the sides in Portugal. Post-match, Mourinho pointed his finger at the referee, Italy’s Simone Sozza.

“Regarding the specifics of the game, I don’t want to discuss it too much, especially since I was far away,” Mourinho replied when quizzed on Sozza’s display. “I don’t like to protest just for the sake of protesting, but all the unsportsmanlike conduct they displayed…

“I usually say that when a team engages in a lot of unsportsmanlike conduct, there’s only one person to blame: the referee. It’s rare to see a referee give a yellow card to a goalkeeper in the first half.

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“They only give them in the 89th minute. Then there are fouls, they throw themselves to the ground, forcing the game to be stopped. But I won’t go into specifics about the specifics of the game; perhaps nothing special happened and there weren’t any glaring errors.

“But we all have responsibility in the game. And the ugly part of today’s game, the blame lies with those who allow it. A referee who, unfortunately, I know well and I know doesn’t have much affection for me, and I don’t have much for him. I don’t think we lost because of the referee. We lost because we didn’t score goals.”

Mourinho also bemoaned his players’ lack of cutting edge, as they took three times as many shots as Leverkusen (21) but failed to covert any of them. Benfica’s next match in the Champions League is away to Ajax, a battle of the bottom two.

Will Jose Mourinho turn Benfica around in the Champions League? Give us your prediction in the comments section.

They’ll then play Napoli, Juventus and Real Madrid before the league phase comes to an end in January. “We’ve been saying that games are decisive ever since we lost to Qarabag, which is indeed the game that marks our trajectory,” Mourinho explained.

“We played a good game against Chelsea and deserved more, against Newcastle we were overwhelmed in the second half. We don’t need 12 points to qualify, nor 11, and I think not even 10. But Napoli, Ajax, Real Madrid, Juve…

“We have two games until the end of the calendar year and if we get 6 points we’re in the race. At the moment we’re not in the race in terms of points, but the team played a great game.”

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