MusaThe seasoned manager asserted that his team should have been awarded three penalties during the 120 minutes of play before the shootout at Ibrox on Thursday night.
Neither referee Espen Eskas nor VAR official Pol van Boekel deemed any incidents involving Fenerbahce players to be fouls inside the box, with no reviews recommended during the match.
Mourinho even referenced his previous suspension for directing abusive language at Anthony Taylor during the 2023 Europa League final.
Having served a four-match suspension at the time, Mourinho hinted that decisions may have gone against his teams since then as a consequence—though he added that he hoped such decisions were “just random.”
In his post-match interview, Mourinho said: “The ref and the VAR, they decided that we should go to penalties because three penalties within 120 minutes…
“Then on the penalties we missed three and Rangers go through, congratulations to them.”
When pressed on his comments regarding his previous suspension and its potential impact, he added: “The fourth official was a nice guy, he was not arrogant like the referee.
“The only thing that I hope is that everything that happened to my team in European competition this season is not a consequence of the Budapest final, I hope it is just random.
“Since that final, since my suspension, the things that happened to us…we didn’t play Champions League because of a penalty in minute 120 that only the VAR saw.
“We didn’t win against Manchester United with a penalty that everybody saw, in the VAR they didn’t.
“We come here and this guy is considered one of the best VAR, some guy from Holland, Van Boekel. He didn’t see one of three penalties.
“I just hope it is random. I got that suspension, I paid for the suspension and I hope it is over.”
Reflecting on his team’s performance, Mourinho said: “Best team on the pitch by far, not by close by far.
“We deserved to win over 90 minutes, we deserved to win over 120 minutes.
“We were the best team by far.”
Musa
