Real Madrid coach Jos\u00e9 Mourinho has made his feelings clear ahead of this weekend\u2019s key La Liga clash between Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Barcelona.\n<\/p>\n
As reported by Fabrizio Romano on X on Friday, the Real Madrid manager said he would prefer both teams to lose when they meet at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAtletico vs Barcelona? I\u2019d like both of them to lose,\u201d Mourinho stated. \u201cUnfortunately that\u2019s not possible. Points will inevitably be dropped, and that\u2019s the best possible news.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The comment comes as Barcelona sit top of the table with 30 points from 11 games, two points clear of Atl\u00e9tico Madrid (28 points) and three ahead of Real Madrid (27 points). A victory for either side would strengthen their title credentials, while a draw would ensure both drop points, an outcome that would benefit Madrid\u2019s challenge.<\/p>\n
The match is one of the biggest of the season so far, pitting Diego Simeone\u2019s solid Atl\u00e9tico side against Hansi Flick\u2019s free-scoring Barcelona. Both teams head into the fixture in strong form, making Mourinho\u2019s wish for mutual disappointment a difficult one to fulfil.<\/p>\n
Kick-off is set for 21:00 local time on Sunday, 8 November 2026.\n<\/p>\n
Mourinho also responded to Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s decision to retire from the Portugal national team.<\/p>\n
The Real Madrid manager said: \u201cHis decision must be respected, and I do respect it. He hasn\u2019t ended his career; those who know him are aware that he still has goals.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Mourinho, who coached Ronaldo during their successful spell together at Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013, stressed that the 41-year-old\u2019s exit from international football does not mark the end of his playing days.\n<\/p>\n
He added that he hopes Ronaldo\u2019s eventual full retirement as a player will come on a different kind of day from the one on which he announced his departure from the national team.\n<\/p>\n
Ronaldo confirmed his retirement from Portugal duty on Thursday after 23 years, following a period of tension with national team coach Jorge Jesus. Mourinho declined to assess the circumstances of the decision in detail, focusing instead on respect for Ronaldo\u2019s choice and the forward\u2019s remaining ambitions at club level with Al-Nassr.\n<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Real Madrid coach Jos\u00e9 Mourinho has made his feelings clear ahead of this weekend\u2019s key La Liga clash between Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Barcelona. As reported by Fabrizio Romano on X… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}