Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho slammed the first-half display in the 3-2 victory over Malaga in the Copa del Rey.
Sergio Sanchez and Martin Demichelis gave Malaga a surprising two-goal lead at the break, before Madrid turned the score around in the second half, with three goals in 10 minutes, to take an important step towards reaching the quarter-finals of the competition.
After the match, Mourinho said that it was crucial to change some things at the break and admitted it was not easy to decide which players to replace.
“I told my players at half-time that if I could make 11 substitutions, I would change the entire team,” he told reporters.
“I could only make three, but I would have changed all 11 players. I changed three players so that the team could do different things, I thought about doing it before the break, but that is not something that I like.”
“The three players that I replaced did not play any worse than the rest. I do not want to blame anyone.”
Quizzed about the difference in attitude in the players from one half to the other, Mourinho told reporters to ask the players that same question.
“The pace of the match changed and so did the players’ focus,” Mourinho said.
“If we could do it in the second half, why did they not do it in the first one?”
“In the end, what matters in two-legged ties is the result. The most important thing is to win.”
The Portuguese coach then said some of his players were not in ideal shape after the Christmas holidays.
“We always try to return (from holidays) with enough time to go before the first match,” Mourinho said.
“But there are people who perceive these holidays as the time to rest, while others travel and do not stop eating and drinking and return a bit different.”
The second leg at La Rosaleda is on January 10.
