Jose Mourinho praised his players despite Real Madrid losing 2-1 to Atletico Madrid on Sunday at the Metropolitano Stadium.

The Portuguese boss said the players showed ‘great class and character’ and directed his anger at the referee for making key errors.

Mourinho was furious Atletico defender Cristian Romero was not handed a red card for a stamp on Jude Bellingham in the first half.

He also complained Lee Kang-in was not sent off for his challenge on Federico Valverde.

In his post-match press conference, Mourinho said : “Those were two clear red cards. Given the difficulties we faced afterwards playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like.

“So I’ll just have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all and played a first half, showed great class and character, setting us up perfectly to win the second half.”

The turning point of the match came in the 50th minute when Dean Huijsen was dismissed for pulling down Giuliano Simeone inside the box.

Alejandro Grimaldo converted the resulting penalty to put his side 1-0 ahead.