This evening Florentino Pérez announced that José Mourinho and the club have come to a mutual agreement to sever ties at season’s end. Consent from both parties means that buyouts from either side are unnecessary.
“On behalf of the board of directors I would like to thank José Mourinho for all his hard work over the last three years. The team have improved in the last three years and we wish him all the best.”
“After three years we both agreed this was the correct moment to finish. With Mourinho, we made a big leap competitively and sporting-wise. Today Madrid is where it ought to be. We had not reached that level prior to his arrival, so the balance of his stay here was positive.”
Pérez refuted claims that a deteriorated relationship with the locker room was the reason for his departure. Instead, he cited an increasing sense of pressure as a factor.
“Each coach has their own personality, their level of demands, of competitiveness. Has he made some mistakes? Of course, he has admitted that himself. But there is a lot of pressure at Real Madrid. We all know that, we are proud of that pressure that we need to win.”
When asked about Carlo Ancelotti, Florentino denied have any sort of pre-contract in place. “We have a number of candidates in mind, not just one. We asked PSG whether his contract would be terminated, they replied, “No.”
In addition to the Mourinho announcement, Pérez confirmed his intention to run as club president again. Elections will be held June 16th.
Injury update: Mesut Özil was stretchered off the pitch late in the 2nd half. A medical assessment of his injury is pending, but he reportedly left the Bernabéu on crutches.
José Mourinho: ”The players gave everything and we nearly made it through. If we had scored sooner we’d have had more chance. Then, in the last period of the match, we almost did it, but in football you either achieve your aim or you don’t. The fans were fantastic, they helped a lot and believed until the end, it is a shame for them too. I hope that in the near future Real Madrid can reach the final.”
Sergio Ramos: “It’s a shame. Sometimes you lose, that is football. In Dortmund we should have played the way we did tonight. We feel for the fans. It’s a shame to have been so close but the missed chances in the first half were costly.”
“I think we could have [won this tie]. We had a couple of big chances but as a consequence of the way we were playing in the last part of the match, where we risked absolutely everything. But I think we were a team with character, a team with desire and we could do it.”
“I don’t forget the 1st match, and in the 1st match we were very, very bad. And we are, in this moment, punished not because of this result. We are more punished because of the 1st leg.”
“I’m very disappointed with Webb because it’s a red card for Mats Hummels. He saw it. Everybody saw it. But in that moment, he was not a ref, he was a human being. He thought, ‘[If] I give a red card to Mats Hummels, and Mats Hummels misses the final.’”
“Maybe not [with Real Madrid next season]. I don’t know, but I want to be where… I’d love to be where people love me to be.”
José Mourinho: “It is difficult to say what mathematical chance we have [of progressing]. I’ve already said everything to my players. The most important thing was to talk about the mistakes we made in Dortmund. At most clubs success belongs to everyone and failure to the coach. Sometimes football is not fair to one team, but it was in Dortmund and Borussia deserved to win. Anything is possible though.
We played badly in Dortmund and it’s difficult to believe we are going to do the same again. I want mental toughness from my players. We have to enjoy ourselves on the pitch, although we are in a difficult situation. We have to play it minute by minute and goal by goal until the last breath of the match. We may ultimately lose the game, but we will have no chance if we play like we did in Dortmund.
I feel this is the most important match in ten years for Real Madrid, but I also felt that in Dortmund and we played like [it was] a friendly. If I don’t win the Champions League nothing changes. There are many coaches who haven’t won it, so I have to thank God because I’ve done so twice. I have considered Borussia candidates to win the competition since the beginning of the season.”
Sergio Ramos: “There is no bigger motivation than playing in a UEFA Champions League final. I’ve been here for eight years and never played in one. There is nothing better – we have to believe we can get back into it.”
“We want revenge. We have negative memories from the first leg and we want to play. We know our fans will support us from the first minute but that won’t be of any use if we are not focused on the game. We know what we have to do and what happened in Dortmund. We know how good a team Borussia Dortmund are.
Qualifying will be much harder if they score. It is complicated for us but if we want to be in the final we have to beat the best teams. The result in Dortmund was fair – there is nothing left to say when you lose as we did last week. We just have to do our best.”
“How did it go from 1-1 to 4-1? I really don’t know because everything happened in a very short space of time… It looks like to me we lost easy possession and we couldn’t cope with their counter-attacking transition. When we know absolutely everything about Lewandowski, we absolutely studied him from every detail possible and when we lose him in 3 goals (I don’t think about the penalty) where we know exactly what he does is, of course, very disappointing.”
“When I lose and I don’t deserve to lose, for me it’s a problem. When I lose and I deserve to lose, for me it’s a situation that I accept.”
“[Lewandowski] deserves credit for what he did, but we gave him big support to be man of the match.”
“We can [turn it around]. It’s very difficult, but we can. In football anything can happen. Of course we can. On a crazy night where everybody performs at a high level, where every chance you have or goal you score with a high level of efficiency… of course we can.”
If you’re going to get eliminated, you cannot leave without dying on the pitch. On Tuesday I’m sure the players are gonna give their everything. If we’re eliminated by BVB, we’re gonna make them suffer. We’re gonna die on the pitch.
Mourinho on press conference after BVB vs Real Madrid (via habla-madrid)
“The best team by far won. Individually and collectively Dortmund were better and deserved their victory. They were first to every ball and were far more intense than us. We found it hard to hold onto possession when they pressed. I think all of my players gave it their all. We can come back.” — José Mourinho
“We were lacking in attitude and I point to myself first when I say that. It will be very difficult in the return leg at home but we must remain confident and try to react. When the draw for the semi-finals was made a lot of people thought this was going to be easy for us but this is a German team we are talking about; they are a great side.” — Sergio Ramos
