LaLiga: Why Real Madrid lost 1-0 to Betis – Mourinho

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has blamed his players for their 1-0 defeat to Real Betis on Friday night, describing their approach during the game as naive.

The defeat at the Benito Villamarin brought an end to Real Madrid’s perfect start to the LaLiga season.

Mourinho’s team dominated large parts of the match and created several chances, but they failed to take advantage of their opportunities. Kylian Mbappe also missed a late penalty that could have rescued a point for the visitors.

Real Betis eventually punished Madrid’s wastefulness when Troy Parrott scored the only goal of the game in the 81st minute.

After the match, Mourinho criticised his players for failing to deal with the way Betis approached the game.

“Our players are naive,” Mourinho said.

“Real Betis players were smarter than our players tonight.”

The Portuguese manager was particularly unhappy with how Betis managed to get Arda Guler booked and then targeted the midfielder afterwards.

“They managed to get Arda Guler on a yellow, because they were smarter.”

“From the first moment of the game, they fouled Fede Valverde hard, it was a clear yellow, they fouled so many of our players, but our players are very naive, they get up immediately and they don’t get opponents booked.”

“Then Arda commits a small foul, and he gets booked.”

“After that, Betis players started hunting him to try to get him sent off.”

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Mourinho will now expect his players to learn from the defeat as Real Madrid look to respond quickly and return to winning ways in their next LaLiga fixture.