José Mourinho walked away from the microphones at the Santiago Bernabéu. Íñigo Pérez walked straight into them.
The Villarreal manager had just watched his side lose 1-0 to Real Madrid on Saturday, 10 October, in a match defined less by the goal than by Vinícius Júnior’s red card for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair, a disallowed goal, and a touchline atmosphere that boiled over in the closing minutes. Asked about the heat, Pérez did not duck.
“There are people who take care of organising this kind of tension,” he said in his post-match press conference.
Mourinho’s calculated silence
Mourinho had already made his own decision upstairs. He cancelled his post-match media duties entirely, a boycott the club publicly supported, because he feared that criticising the officiating on camera could trigger a ban that would keep him off the bench for the trip to Sevilla and, more importantly, the Clásico at Camp Nou on Sunday, 25 October.
“I want to be there against Sevilla and Barca,” Mourinho reportedly told club staff, as explained in Madrid Universal’s account.
Villarreal’s coach does the talking
“Tension has been generated, the game is diluted and takes a back seat,” Pérez told reporters at the Bernabéu, in remarks carried in Defensa Central.
He added that he had to exonerate his own players for whatever happened in that climate.
The Spaniard also made clear what he thought of his team’s start to the season on the pitch, where Villarreal had come to the Bernabéu with Champions League ambitions and left with nothing.
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“If the standings were pure statistics, we would surely be among the top two or three,” he said in his post-match remarks reported by El Gol Digital.
Vinícius facing a ban before Camp Nou
Both men were careful for the same reason, twelve days away. Barcelona host Real Madrid at Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday, 25 October, in matchday 10 of La Liga.
Vinícius is likely to miss it. Real Madrid plan to appeal the straight red card, but the club itself expects a ban of at least two games, which would rule the Brazilian out of both the home fixture against Sevilla on 18 October and the Clásico. Spanish reports have added a second issue: a push on a La Liga employee as Vinícius left the pitch, which could lengthen the punishment.
Real Madrid host Sevilla on 18 October. The Clásico follows a week later at Camp Nou.
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