Rome, 20 Oct. (LaPresse) – “The shirt and the crest are untouchable. I don’t like this notion of an ‘untouchable’ player. What makes them untouchable isn’t their status, the captain’s armband or how much they’ve been paid. What makes them untouchable is what they do on the pitch.” So said José Mourinho, Real Madrid’s manager, at a press conference ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League match against Leipzig. “Leipzig are not the team that lost heavily in Munich; they are the team with three points who want to qualify. We’ve won three matches in quick succession, and we won the last one by playing very well and putting in a complete performance, but we must carry on like this. Tomorrow we’ll have a top-class referee (the Romanian Istvan Kovacs, ed.). He’s incredibly talented and has a fantastic personality. I have a feeling he’s so good that VAR won’t play a significant role in the match, and I’m very pleased to have a referee like him for a match like this,” he added. As for the favourites for the Champions League, “Real Madrid’s aim isn’t to win it at the moment, but to qualify. And if we secure the necessary points, the next objective will be to avoid the play-offs we had to go through last season – matches that can be avoided. But in this competition, I have a feeling we’ll need a lot of points and that it will be difficult. And once we’ve secured the 11 or 12 points we need, we’ll have to capitalise on them to aim for the round of 16.”
Real Madrid, Mourinho: “Vinicius? The only thing that’s untouchable is the crest”
Rome, 20 Oct. (LaPresse) – “The shirt and the crest are untouchable. I don’t like this notion of an ‘untouchable’ player. What makes them untouchable isn’t their status, the captain’s armband or how much they’ve been paid. What makes them untouchable is what they do on the pitch.” So said José Mourinho, Real Madrid’s manager, at a press conference ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League match against Leipzig. “Leipzig are not the team that lost heavily in Munich; they are the team with three points who want to qualify. We’ve won three matches in quick succession, and we won the last one by playing very well and putting in a complete performance, but we must carry on like this. Tomorrow we’ll have a top-class referee (the Romanian Istvan Kovacs, ed.). He’s incredibly talented and has a fantastic personality. I have a feeling he’s so good that VAR won’t play a significant role in the match, and I’m very pleased to have a referee like him for a match like this,” he added. As for the favourites for the Champions League, “Real Madrid’s aim isn’t to win it at the moment, but to qualify. And if we secure the necessary points, the next objective will be to avoid the play-offs we had to go through last season – matches that can be avoided. But in this competition, I have a feeling we’ll need a lot of points and that it will be difficult. And once we’ve secured the 11 or 12 points we need, we’ll have to capitalise on them to aim for the round of 16.”