Jose Mourinho Reveals The Reason Behind The Embarrassing Bristol City Defeat
REUTERS/David Klein
Manchester United suffered a dramatic 2-1 loss to Bristol City in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, and manager Jose Mourinho reportedly believes that along with some of his players, ‘luck’ was also not on his side.
The defending champions saw themselves behind after Joe Bryan put one past Sergio Romero in the second half, but a blistering Zlatan Ibrahimovic free-kick saw the visitors equalize just before the one-hour mark.
However, a 93rd minute Korey Smith goal became the reason of a jubilant pitch-invasion at full-time, as Bristol beat the Red Devils for the first time since 1978.
And as for the Red Devils, the humbling defeat raised a plethora of questions, with the major one coming from their boss. The Portuguese tactician, though claimed that the Robins were ‘lucky’ in the massive upset, called into account the commitment of his players during the clash.
The Special One took a shot at his players for ‘lacking in physical and mental intensity,’ and even stating that some players didn’t ‘want to come to the office’.
While talking to Sky Sports, Mourinho said: “In the first half we lacked the intensity they had. That is not just physical, I say also mentally. For some of us it was just another day in the office and for some of them they don’t even want to come to the office.
“For the Bristol boys it was a big, big day for them. You could see that. We hit the post twice, the Marcus Rashford shot hits the inside the post and comes out so they were a bit lucky.
“We were not so bad as that. They were a bit lucky. But they fought a lot to be lucky. They win the game in a moment when we have no possibilities to react.
“They won the game in our best moment of the game, they win the game in the moment when everyone was waiting for our goal. I have to say they were a bit lucky. I have to say we hit the post twice before they scored the first goal.
“They play brilliantly, they fought like this was the game of their lives which probably it was. It is nice for it to be like that. It is a beautiful day for football because a team from a lower division won and got into a semi-final.
“It is a big day for them and a big day for their supporters. I congratulate to them I don’t want the fact that I say the are lucky to be the pin thing of it. The man thing of it is they won and they worked hard for it.
“In the second half after their goals we react well. We were the best team. They tried to win the game in the 90 minutes and they were very lucky to have the goal in the last second. I don’t want the fact that I use the word lucky to be the most important thing.
“A Championship team beat a team like Manchester United, a big night for them. At this club we know how to win, we know how to lose so we say congratulations to them and good luck for the semi-final.”
Written by Sidharth Jindal 
Sports fanatic with a passion for writing (predominantly football) and “Wants to live life to its fullest.” Writes about the Premier League on his personal blog.