José Mourinho has made a significant admission about the penalty awarded to his striker Kylian Mbappé during Real Madrid's La Liga clash with Racing Santander, an incident that sparked major refereeing controversy.
Mbappé won the spot-kick in last Sunday's game and converted it himself, helping the Royal club to a 3-0 win.
Refereeing experts lined up afterwards to insist Mbappé should never have been awarded the penalty. On Wednesday morning, the Spanish referees' committee admitted the official had got the decision wrong.
Quizzed about the incident after Wednesday's Champions League meeting with Greece's AEK Athens, Mourinho replied: "For me, it was a small penalty, I admit it. And if it had been given against me, I wouldn't be happy."
He played down any impact on the result, adding, as highlighted by the newspaper "AS": "This is a case that had no impact on the points. Even if we hadn't got the penalty, we would have won by three, four or five goals. And if we had needed to score more, we would have done so, but the team didn't want to keep scoring."
"The great Nadal"
Mourinho also praised the decision to appoint Spanish star Rafael Nadal to Real Madrid's board of directors, saying: "I take my hat off to Real Madrid, and to the great Rafa Nadal. I believe he is a big Real Madrid fan, and he certainly must be in order to join the board. But Rafa Nadal is Rafa Nadal, and as a manager I feel great pride in having him with us."
The Portuguese then added, with a smile: "I just hope that fans of other clubs who love Nadal don't stop loving him because of him being a Real Madrid fan."