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| Sunday, 18 September 2011 22:24 |
Mourinho disappointed after Levante defeat: “We fell for the trap”Levante 1-0 Real Madrid Real Madrid suffered a shock defeat to Levante on Sunday evening, with coach Jose Mourinho admitting that his side had contributed to their own downfall after being reduced to ten men during the first half.
Mourinho left Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo out of his starting line-up, following an ankle injury sustained in Zagreb against Dinamo in midweek. Ricardo Carvalho, Pepe and Fabio Coentrao did start for the visitors, who were looking to return to the top of La Liga with a third straight victory. However, in a first half littered with yellow cards, Real lost German midfielder Sami Khedira to a second bookable offence during a scuffle between the sides five minutes before the break. Mourinho responded by introducing Ronaldo at half time, but it was Levante who took all three points through Arouna Kone’s 68th-minute winner. "My player knows about these situations and fell for the trap. That's why I make him partly responsible for the defeat and I don't have a problem doing so,” Mourinho said after the match. “But the referee is also to blame. It's too much to forgive a penalty and a red card. It is also our fault, mine and my players'. An important part of the meeting I had with my players today covered similar images to those of Khedira's red card. I didn't think one of my players could fall for such a trap. “You prepare for games as best as you can and this is the response you get. It's normal on one hand because we don't train or recreate situations like this. Players have to be sufficiently intelligent to know how to react and to avoid these situations. You also have to feel it in your gut if the ref will allow it. “We had great chances to score and we failed to capitalise on them because the pitch was in bad shape and Levante defended fiercely. We dominated the match at times. There was a clear penalty that wasn't awarded to us and it would have also meant that player's second booking. If we had scored and they had been left with ten men, the game would have been different. “Cristiano Ronaldo told me he wasn't fit at 14:00. He said he could help, but that he wasn't in optimum form, that he didn't evolve as expected since yesterday. He wasn't ready to play and he didn't train yesterday. "I don't want to detract merit from Levante, who always do very well when they are allowed to play their game at their stadium. I congratulate them for being clever. They know how to waste time and how to not give the ball back. They know this because it's also part of football. Our players don't feel comfortable in this sort of habitat and Levante know it." Follow PortuGOAL on Twitter and Facebook |
I think Jose may have made a mistake in not getting a better striker in the transfer market.
Also, Khedira has been a bust. I actually like Las better.