Jose Mourinho believes Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos deliberately clashed with Lionel Messi in Saturday night’s 1-0 defeat against Barcelona at the Bernabeu.
Former Real Madrid boss Mourinho, who has been strongly linked with a return to the hot-seat at the Bernabeu, suggested Ramos engineered a moment of tension with Messi in a bid to create some edge in the game as his side struggled to click into top gear.
Barcelona moved 10 points clear at the top of the La Liga table after Ivan Rakitic’s goal handed them a 1-0 victory over El Clasico rivals Real Madrid.
The Catalan giants came into the game on the back of their 3-0 Copa Del Rey victory over Real in midweek and they looked comfortable again on Saturday night.
Rakitic scored the game’s only goal after 26 minutes when he chipped the ball over Thibaut Courtois and into the net.
Yet tempers threatened to boil over when Lionel Messi looked to have been caught by a stray arm from Real captain Sergio Ramos in the first half, with Mourinho telling beIN Sports that the experienced defender knew what he was doing in his latest dust-up with Barcelona’s star man.
“I think in the first half, both teams when they had the ball, they did not hurt the opponent too much,” said Mourinho.
“There was no intensity on the defensive actions, with everybody playing in a low-medium block.
“It was not the temperature of a derby, of a Clasico that can settle the title. I think Sergio Ramos’ action probably is coming from a player that knows the game has to change.
“And probably he does it with the intention of creating a different temperature for the second half, because the game until then was really soft, in my opinion.”
Mourinho also hinted Real Madrid’s players turned in a display that suggested they are not enjoying their football under coach Santiago Solari, in comments that many will view as evidence that he would relish a return to Real Madrid.
“I think it was not a happy performance, not the performance of a happy team,” he added. “It was not the performances of a team with great belief or self-esteem. Cleary, they are now in a zone after a few bad results, especially the cup match (against Barcelona in midweek), where they are in a low.
“They couldn’t bring to the game what I used to call the ‘temperature’ of the big matches, they were passive. I cannot speak about a bad performance, it was not a bad performance. I just think it was a soft performance.
“Sometimes you play like this against medium teams, and in the end you get a positive result. But against the top team you have to do much more than this if you want to win.”