Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho turned his fire on his players after a hard-fought win over Elche in the closing minutes. He warned that his side played with fire once they lost control of the match and handed their opponents a route back into it, insisting there are many things that need to improve.
Real Madrid were cruising to an easy win over La Liga's bottom side. Instead they made life difficult for themselves and snatched three points by the skin of their teeth in a 3-2 win on Tuesday evening at the "Manuel Martinez Valero" stadium in the sixth round.
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That scare left Merengues fans anxious ahead of the derby against Atletico Madrid at the "Metropolitano" stadium next Sunday.
"We left spaces"
Mourinho didn't hold back, in remarks highlighted by the newspaper "Marca" after the match: "Only three points. Of course, after the first half the feeling was that we would score three, four or five goals in the second half, but we lowered the level of intensity and gave the opponent big spaces."
He added: "I tried to give the midfield more cohesion by bringing on Jude Bellingham and Brahim Diaz, but they scored a goal, and on these pitches, with this crowd presence, a team that looks as if it has died can bring itself back to life."
"We can and we don't"
Turning to the changes he made in the final minutes, Mourinho explained: "We have a lot of talent, and we took the maximum risk, and the players had a feeling that we could not lose. We played very good final minutes."
The Portuguese coach praised his side's mentality, but flagged the problem that still nags at him: "The players are united and motivated, and there is friendship and commitment. My only criticism is that we can settle matches and we don't do it, and we gave a team that looked as if it were dead a chance to bring itself back to life."
Fixture pressure
On rotation amid a congested schedule, Mourinho said: "We made changes, and Mbappe and Konate are the only two who played the full matches against Inter, Rayo and Elche."
He added: "Now we have to get some rest, then start preparing for the match on Thursday."
The problem of slackness
Mourinho addressed the periods of decline that Real Madrid suffer during matches: "The problem seems clear to me. There are matches that look as if they are over, but they are not over."
He continued: "The only explanation I find is that we consider them easy matches, and we do not kill them off. There are matches we do not settle, and it seems that we go from a feeling of ease to losing control."
Warming to the theme, he went on: "On such packed pitches, and with wonderful fans, things become difficult. And the good thing is that when it gets more difficult, the team reacts and wins, and this is the most important thing."
A joke followed to close the point: "And the good thing too is that no one gets bored in Real Madrid matches, because they are very entertaining."
Praise for Espi
On Carlos Espi, scorer of the killer winning goal, Mourinho said: "He puts in a good performance, and he is a player with great motivation. In front of him is a player who is not normal (Mbappe), and playing with the two of them together is not easy, because we do not have on the flanks traditional players for a 4-4-2 system."
He explained: "In the end we risked everything, because a draw does not serve us."
Diomande is developing
There was praise, too, for the level of Yan Diomande: "He is developing. He has a great capacity for work and intelligence, because it is not easy to play 85 minutes while carrying a yellow card. He did a great job, and I am happy with him."
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Defensive concern
On Real Madrid conceding goals in every match, Mourinho said: "I very much like my team to score goals, but I also like to control matches. I do not like us to gift the opponent chances."
He added: "We can concede a goal from a situation that has nothing to do with the context of the match, but today the goals came because we lost control of the play."
"Not an indispensable player"
Mourinho refused to consider Arda Guler an indispensable player: "There is no indispensable player. When I make the changes, it is because we were losing control."
He explained: "Arda started to lower his intensity, because he was playing in the number 10 position, and this position requires covering the entire pitch."
A match with three faces
On the midfield's performance, Mourinho said: "When the team was good, they were very good. We came out of the press well and with great quality, but our match has two faces."
He corrected himself: "Or three faces, to be more precise, because the ending was simply: either we kill the match or we die in it."
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