Mourinho: 'The story of the match is right here' after stormy Madrid derby

José Mourinho, clutching an A4 printout, opened his post-match media duties by declaring the press conference unnecessary. "We can skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here. Those were two clear red cards," he said, speaking after a fiery Madrid derby against Atlético.

The Portuguese manager pointed squarely at the match officials. "Given the difficulties we faced playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like," he said.

All praise for his players, all blame for the referee

"So I'll just have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all and played a first half, showed great class and character, setting us up perfectly to win the second half," Mourinho added, before turning his fire on the man in the middle.

"They've put a referee, aged 41, with no international experience — it's certainly not because he's a great referee. Then the poor chap has come here and hasn't been able to cope with the pressure — and it really is intense pressure. I call it '80s-style pressure' here in this stadium, which you hardly ever see these days."

The Football Daily teasingly left readers to guess whether Real Madrid had lost the derby against Atlético — and pointed to Sid Lowe's verdict on the night for the definitive account of a heated encounter in the Spanish capital.