Atletico hit back at Mourinho over referee complaints

Atletico Madrid have refuted Jose Mourinho's allegations of referee misconduct following their 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in their derby match. The Real Madrid boss arrived at his post-match press conference carrying printouts of screenshots alleging two incidents that should have resulted in red cards for Atletico. Mourinho claimed the officials made critical errors, stating Real should have been awarded two red cards in the first half.

In response, Atletico posted twice on their X account, criticizing referee harassment. The first post featured a video of a sheet of paper coming out of a printer with the message "#StopAcosoArbitralYA", meaning "stop referee harassment now." The second post displayed an image of Mourinho at the news conference with the same message. The Atletico post garnered two million views within two hours of being published.

Diego Simeone's team frequently uses their social media platforms to respond to their rivals, often ridiculing Barcelona for their pursuit of Atletico's star player, Julian Alvarez. The Real Madrid match report published on their website suggested the derby loss was primarily due to "awful refereeing" not attributed to Diego Ortiz Arias.

Mourinho had shown media the printed images of the screenshots claiming two clear red cards during the post-match press conference, expressing frustration over the team playing 11 against 10 after the match. Simeone, when asked to respond to Mourinho's accusations, emphasized the need for respect towards referees and colleagues, stating that crossing the line of respect is not acceptable.