Getafe 2-1 Real Madrid
Mourinho:
“Getafe deserved to win. The players say there was a handball by Colunga, but I don’t care. They didn’t playfantastically, but they deserved to win and I congratulate them. We playedbadly and our performance was unacceptable. I’m not frustrated, because thefinal result, in terms of the match, isn’t a surprise”.
When asked about the five-point disadvantage with regard to the top teams,Mourinho ensured that “it’s too many points with six on offer. It is a badstart without doubt. The match against Valencia was different tothis because we drew but deserved to win. Not this match. We deserved to losein a match like today”.
Mourinho played down the importance of Real Madrid not having won in any of itsthree official matches: “I don’t think it’s ever happened to me. But eachseason new things happen: I’d never won 100 points, or scored 120 goals. Mycareer is getting longer and this is Real Madrid and it’s not normalthat from six points available you only win one. The Supercup is differentbecause it’s a knock-out competition. Today has been a horrible match”.
With regard to the team’s possible errors, the Portuguese coach would ratherwork on them behind closed doors, in the changing rooms: “It’scomplicated to analyse it in such a way with journalists and there are thingsthat can’t be discussed in front of the press. The players don’t know what Ithink and there are things I have to talk about with them. They are tired, inmy opinion, after the match. I don’t like to talk after matches”.
Mourinho did not want to blame the defeat on physical or footballing reasons:”It was not one or the other. It’shard for me to talk about this with you and that my players see my reaction onthe internet or in the press when I haven’t talked to them yet. I heard whatthey said about the second goal, the handball by Colunga, I don’t know if it isor not. I heard the referee accuse Fabio of saying a word they say he didn’tsay. I only want them to know that the defeat was deserved. Getafe played ok,but it was more our defeat. They were ok but we were bad”.
Finally, Mourinho spoke about dead balls and how his players prepare for them: “Deadballs have many aspects. Organisation and individual error. In recent matcheswe have worked more than ever on defensive organisation for dead balls and wecan’t work on it any more. In terms of organisation we can’t improve because weanalyse videos, photoshop and we train on the pitch. But you also haveindividual error and one player doesn’t complete his mission. I realise thatthis goal and that conceded against Valencia are ridiculous goals”.
Osasuna 1-2 Barcelona– Messi scored both goals
Tito Vilanova praised his players for their perseverance and work ethic in tonight’s fight back against Osasuna at El Sadar. “We have place a lot of value on our capacity to fight back. This means we’re strong because you have to be mentally strong and have ambition to win in this stadium. We created enough chances to win the match. It’s twice as difficult to win here when you’re behind because they’ll try to break the rhythm of the game.”
Messi and Cesc
The Catalan manager reminded the press room that the season started just last week and that his players are still adjusting to competitive play. “We just started. This isn’t April or May when the players can play a lot of consecutive games.” That’s why he believes players like Messi, who scored a brace, didn’t have a bad game. “We always want Messi to play in the number 10 position [playmaker], but he still scores when he plays in the 9 position [center forward].”
On Cesc, Vilanova said that “he didn’t play a bad game. He had a good pre-season and he’s improved since then.” In addition, the manager said that he didn’t name Cesc to the starting line-up to rest Xavi ahead of Wednesday’s match against Real Madrid. “We just started and we have a lot of players that have tremendous talent, it’s all about sharing the load. We make the line-ups thinking about what we’ll come up against. I thought it would be better to play with Cesc and Iniesta, both of whom can score going forward,” said Vilanova.
