Jose Mourinho says he will not give any thought to Sunday’s El Clasico against Barcelona until Real Madrid have completed their Champions League match with RB Leipzig.
Real strengthened their position before the meeting with Barcelona by beating Sevilla 4-1 in LaLiga on Sunday. Kylian Mbappe scored twice, while Arda Guler and Yan Diomande were also on target.
The result leaves Real six points behind league leaders Barcelona, who they visit at Camp Nou on Sunday.
Mourinho, who managed Real Madrid from 2010 to 2013, recorded five wins, six draws and six defeats in 17 matches against Barcelona. Three of those victories came in nine away games, in which he also had three draws and three defeats.
However, with Wednesday’s Champions League fixture against RB Leipzig taking place first, the Portuguese manager is refusing to make plans for the Clasico.
“There is the Champions League to play first, and that’s the only game we are thinking about. I won’t spend even a minute thinking about our opponent for next Sunday until Wednesday at 11pm,” he said when asked about the match against Barcelona.
Mourinho also defended his selection decisions after making changes during the victory over Sevilla.
“There’s no way to quantify which 11 players deserve to play the most. Many people deserve to play, and today some came on, and others didn’t leave the bench at all.
“For example, the player who scored the winning goal against Roma [Antonio Rudiger] didn’t even play. We had more possession, more control of the game, created a lot, and got the ball to our wide players a lot. It was a very good game.”
Sevilla manager Luis Garcia was angered by an incident involving Guler, claiming the Real Madrid player should have been sent off for an apparent elbow on Peque Fernandez.
Mourinho said he had not seen any footage of the incident and questioned the focus on it after Sevilla’s four-goal defeat.
“I don’t comment on that. No one has managed to show me what they say happened. I haven’t seen a single image,” he said.
“I’ve asked my analysts and the TV people for images, and I haven’t been able to see any image of the things they are talking about that upset Luis.
“If one day something happens that I believe benefited us, I’ll have no problem coming out and saying it, but I think the opposite is more likely to happen because it’s the natural trend of things.”
Asked whether he had been concerned that Guler could be suspended for the Barcelona match, with Vinicius Junior already banned, Mourinho again said his focus remained on the Champions League.
“I haven’t thought for a minute about El Clasico, only about winning this game,” he said.
“When the situation happened, I looked at the tablet and I didn’t see anything. Have any of you seen it? That’s why I don’t understand the obsession with so many questions about this story.”
