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João Tralhão insists there was “perfect synchronisation” with Jose Mourinho last night and the Benfica boss’ absence from the touchline did not contribute to their 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid.
Tralhão was the de facto manager at the Santiago Bernabeu with Mourinho serving a one-game ban for his red card in the first leg of the Champions League play-off in Lisbon last week.
Mourinho, who was unable to sit on the bench, had a space reserved in radio booth number six at the stadium but is reported to have stayed on the team bus and watched the game from there on an iPad.
It is not known how much impact he had on the game itself – official lines of communication with the bench were not permitted – but Tralhão says the issue did not hamper the Portuguese club.
He told the club’s official website: “The synchronisation was perfect. We were prepared. Obviously, it wasn’t a situation we wanted. José Mourinho didn’t want to be out of the game. We felt it was an unfair situation, but our synchronisation was perfect.
“We have always anticipated the scenarios. This is obviously a new situation this season. We weren’t thinking we could have the coach out, but he was, he was suspended, we anticipated the scenario.
“The synchronisation was perfect from the beginning of this preparation, today it remained perfect, and the decisions, obviously – I had told you – are always from the coach, but always supported by his technical staff.”
Mourinho proud of the performance
Benfica levelled the aggregate score when Rafa Silva prodded them ahead after 14 minutes but Aurelien Tchouaméni scored a near-instant equaliser and Vinicius Jr added a late winner as Madrid went through to the last 16 3-1 overall.
“We feel that we have created enough today,” added Tralhão. “I have just talked to José Mourinho, we are very proud of our performance, very proud of our team. The players were extraordinary.
“We are frustrated with the result, precisely because of that. We dominated from the beginning, we scored, we conceded a goal against the run of play, as you could see, and yet we maintained the personality, we maintained the character, we maintained our winning mentality.
“The game was decided in small details. We could have scored, we created enough occasions to score. Real Madrid obviously has a great team, but they had a giant in goal [Thibaut Courtois] who did not allow us to take the opportunities we had, but we leave here proud of the team.”
