Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho said his men did not impress in the first half during Saturday’s derby at Old Trafford against Manchester City, just as he also blamed the 1-2 loss on referee Mark Clattenburg who he said “made two big mistakes”.
“The two halves were completely different. In the first half we were below the level to play this match. You have to be completely ready in terms of the speed of your thinking and decision-making.
“The second half was completely different. We were a team that had the courage and honesty and dignity to chase with pride the result which I think we deserved – we deserved a goal in the second half,” the Special One told bbc.com.
The Portuguese manager stated that he also lost the game to bad officiating.
“We were also punished by two decisions of Mark [Clattenburg], because even the best referees can make mistakes and he made two mistakes. The first one is Bravo [on Rooney] – it’s a penalty and a red card. If any player does that outside the box, it’s a direct free-kick and a red card, so inside the box it’s a penalty and a red card. But the referee maybe thought of the consequences of that because the consequences would be a completely different game and he didn’t want to take that decision, which would be very important.”
“And the second one is another penalty – Otamendi, with his elbow. He tries to stop the cross that’s going in front of him but the cross goes behind him, he’s looking to the ball and brings the arm and elbow back, and it’s another clear penalty. So we were also punished by that,” said the former Chelsea manager.
Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola speaking after his first victory over his old adversary said:”We are happy. I think the spectators enjoyed it because it was open until the end. First half we were better – in the second half it was difficult. We had counter-attacks and we didn’t finish.
“These guys have a heart – in the first half we won a lot of duels against a team physically stronger. In the second half, the long balls, you just pray because it’s almost impossible to control that,” he told bbc.com.