José Mourinho turned his post-match press conference into a paper-based demonstration on Sunday 20 September 2026, arriving after Real Madrid’s 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano carrying printed A4 freeze-frames of two first-half tackles he believed should have ended with Atletico players being sent off. By Monday 21 September, Atletico had responded with pointed social media posts carrying a hashtag translated as ‘stop referee harassment now’, extending the disagreement over the derby’s refereeing decisions.
What Mourinho produced and what he claimed
According to the Guardian, Mourinho sat down in front of reporters, placed his glasses on the table, and unfolded a sheet of paper bearing two screen-grabbed images from the first half of the match. One showed Atletico defender Cristian ‘Cuti’ Romero’s studs making contact with Jude Bellingham’s knee; the other depicted Lee Kang-in’s challenge on Federico Valverde’s ankle. Mourinho told the room, as reported by Sky Sports, that they could effectively skip the press conference because the story of the match was contained on that single sheet.
He argued that both incidents constituted clear red cards and that, had justice been served, Atletico would have been reduced to nine men for most of the second half rather than Real being reduced to ten. The near five-minute address that followed ranged across the referee’s age and experience, the intensity of the Metropolitano atmosphere and what he described as strange patterns in officiating decisions. He stopped short of alleging the match had been deliberately arranged against Real, saying he preferred to believe the errors had been honest ones, but the implication ran through much of what he said, according to Sky Sports.
Real Madrid’s official post-match report reinforced his position in unusually direct terms. The club stated that the defeat had been marked by poor officiating from referee Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias, and set out in detail how it believed two decisions had shaped the game. On the Romero challenge, the report stated that Ortiz Arias had been called by VAR official Trujillo Suárez to review the incident on the pitchside monitor, rescinded an initial yellow card shown to Bellingham, but then issued only a yellow card to Romero rather than a red. On the Kang-in challenge, the same report claimed Ortiz Arias was positioned close to the incident, took no action against the Atletico player, and received no prompt from Trujillo Suárez on that occasion.
Mourinho also told reporters that the referee, whom he characterised as 41 years old and lacking international experience, had been unable to cope with the pressure of the occasion, which he described as carrying an intensity reminiscent of 1980s football. He suggested that naming the official in advance of the match, rather than 24 hours before kick-off as he implied was standard practice, had contributed to the problem, according to the Guardian.
How the match unfolded
The 70,514 supporters inside the Metropolitano witnessed a contest that Atletico largely controlled, whatever the disputed first-half moments. The Guardian reported that Atletico took more than twice as many shots as Real during the match and held approximately two-thirds of possession. Real’s first attempt on target did not arrive until the 39th minute, and came from 25 yards out.
The decisive sequence came five minutes into the second half. Dean Huijsen brought down Giuliano Simeone inside the penalty area as the last defender and was dismissed. Alejandro Grimaldo converted the spot-kick with a low finish to give Atletico the lead, and Jonathan David doubled the advantage six minutes after that. Antonio Rüdiger headed in from a free-kick late on to reduce the deficit to 2-1, but Real could not find an equaliser and the match finished in Atletico’s favour.
Giuliano Simeone’s contribution gave the occasion a particular dimension. The 23-year-old, son of Atletico manager Diego Simeone, won the penalty for the opening goal and created the second. The Guardian noted that when Diego Simeone last defeated Mourinho in a Madrid derby 13 years earlier, Giuliano had been a ten-year-old watching at home after being told he was too young to attend. On Sunday, he was the player who shaped the result, with his father sprinting along the touchline to celebrate with him.
Atletico’s social media counter-attack
Atletico chose not to let Mourinho’s complaints pass without reply. On Monday 21 September, the club published two posts on their X account. The first was a video showing a sheet of paper being printed bearing a message that Sky Sports translated as meaning ‘stop referee harassment now’. The second post showed an image of Mourinho at the press conference accompanied by the same message. The posts framed Mourinho’s printout demonstration not as legitimate protest but as an attempt to place unacceptable pressure on match officials, a characterisation directly at odds with the version of events published by Real Madrid.
The competitive picture
The row is unfolding against a backdrop that gives Real’s discontent a sharper edge. After seven matches of the La Liga season, the standings show Barcelona on 21 points, with Atletico and Real Betis level on 16 and Real Madrid fourth on 15. Real therefore sit six points behind Barcelona after seven matches.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 7 | +24 | 21 |
| 2 | Atletico Madrid | 7 | +9 | 16 |
| 3 | Real Betis | 7 | +2 | 16 |
| 4 | Real Madrid | 7 | +10 | 15 |
When asked directly about being six points behind Barcelona, Mourinho said, as reported by Sky Sports, that provided Real were left in peace and allowed to compete on a level playing field there was still a long way to go. The Guardian, however, observed that the underlying performance data from the derby pointed to a team with more fundamental concerns than refereeing decisions: limited attacking threat before the disputed incidents, little reaction after the red card and a solitary late goal that did not genuinely threaten Atletico’s control of the match.