Mourinho: Varane played through the pain

Real Madrid manager, Jose Mourinho expressed his disappointment in several of his player’s performances in their 2-1 loss to Celta Vigo on Wednesday evening, but insisted that they can still win the tie.

In his post-match press conference, Mourinho did not call out players specifically, but hinted that there were players who were not giving their all, while praising defender, Raphael Varane for fighting through injury to remain on the pitch.



“Varane is a champion because he was injured and played through the pain, he gave more injured than others who weren’t. He did his job as a centre forward because he couldn’t sprint and defend. We left him there and he did well. It was my decision to leave Morata out. Sometimes I make good decisions, some bad, and today was a bad decision. Maybe Morata should have been on the bench. I made a change because we were losing and I wanted more energy in the attack.



“Obviously there are players who disappointed me, but you can’t expect me to call them out individually. I can’t remember who asked me the question, but with Morata green, raw and has ambition but what’s best is that he wants to make mistakes. Morata might have been better because a player who doesn’t want this that badly, doesn’t want to play. It was cold, rainy and I think we saw the same game, with similar eyes. You guys can criticize the decisions of the manager, but it’s not always the manager that has the responsibility. I honour my responsibilities and nothing else.



“I liked Celta Vigo. I think they deserved to win the match, the result is indicative of what happened. It take much for them to score two goals and the same with the one we scored. Perhaps it was more of a 1-0 game. They scored the second unknowingly and forced us to react, but they were the best team on the field. I think Madrid are the favourites and I think we will win. I’d rather lose here today than in the league.



“We have every chance to pass. We don’t have to win 4-0 or 5-0. We have to win 4-2, 2-0, 1-0. We don’t have to make a historic comeback, we just have to win, but I also know that Celta will put all their cards on the table and try to play their game. I think we can win and our stadium will be more excited than if we had won here. We have to turn the result around and I still think we can win the tie.”


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