Mourinho blames referee and shows tackle photos after Real Madrid's derby defeat to Atletico

Jose Mourinho reignited his long-running feud with referees after Real Madrid fell to Atletico Madrid in the Madrid derby, losing to goals from Jonathan David and Alejandro Grimaldo while playing with ten men.

The 63-year-old Portuguese coach appeared at his post-match press conference armed with photographs of two challenges from Atletico’s Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in that he believed warranted red cards, and directed pointed criticism at the match official, Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias.

“It’s all been very strange. The referee was known a week in advance… and he isn’t an international referee, which suggests he isn’t exactly a top-tier official,” Mourinho said. “The poor guy came here and couldn’t handle the pressure.”

The outburst is the latest entry in a catalogue of confrontations that has defined Mourinho’s career since he first announced himself to English football with a sprinting touchline celebration as Porto manager against Manchester United, before famously declaring himself “a special one” on his arrival at Chelsea in 2004.

His early years at Stamford Bridge brought one of his most notorious episodes. In 2005, UEFA referees’ committee chairman Volker Roth labelled him “an enemy of football” after Mourinho alleged that referee Anders Frisk and Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard had spoken during the half-time interval of a Champions League tie. Didier Drogba was sent off for Chelsea after the break. Frisk subsequently retired following a wave of death threats, prompting Roth’s damning verdict: “We can’t accept that one of our best referees has been forced to quit because of this. People like Mourinho are the enemy of football.”

Mourinho’s ingenuity in circumventing authority was on full display during the same Champions League campaign when a two-match UEFA ban barred him from the touchline for Chelsea’s quarter-final against Bayern Munich. He arrived at Stamford Bridge hours early, slipped undetected into the dressing room, and — when it came time to leave — was smuggled out by kit man Stewart Bannister inside a laundry basket.

“I went there and nobody saw me. The problem was to leave after,” Mourinho later recalled. “The UEFA guys were following and desperate to find me so he closed the box and I couldn’t breathe. When he opened the box I was dying. I am serious — I was claustrophobic, I promise. It’s true!”

Now back in the Spanish capital, Mourinho appears no less willing to court controversy, ensuring that the story of Real Madrid’s derby defeat will be remembered as much for what happened in the press room as on the pitch.