2nd March, 2020
Jose Mourinho has told his players to learn from Wolverhampton Wanderers – and the Tottenham boss has hit out at referee Stuart Attwell.
Mourinho’s team was defeated at home after Wily striker Raul Jimenez struck a superb 73rd-minute winner as Wolverhampton Wanderers twice came back from a goal down to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 on Sunday.
The win helped them to leap-frog Spurs into sixth place in the 2019/2020 English Premier League (EPL) table.
Steven Bergwijn gave Jose Mourinho’s Spurs, who lost 2-1 to Chelsea last week, the lead in the 13th minute.
He slammed home a rebound to spare the blushes of Dele Ali, whose weak shot with the goal at his mercy was parried by Rui Patricio.
The visitors struck back 14 minutes later through Irish international Matt Doherty, who took advantage of some poor defending to score after Spurs failed to clear Ruben Vinagre’s cross.
Serge Aurier restored the lead just before halftime, collecting the ball just inside the penalty box before curling a sublime left-foot shot inside the far post.
But, again, Wolves came back as Diogo Jota scored from close range in the 57th minute.
With Spurs striker Ali spurning several decent chances, Jota then set up Jimenez for the winner.
Jota slid the ball into his path in the 73rd minute for Jimenez to cut swiftly inside before curling a sweet left-foot strike into the net.
The win lifts Wolves into the sixth spot with 42 points after 28 games, just behind Manchester United on goal difference, while Spurs slip to seventh, two points behind Wolves.
With Manchester City set to be banned from the UEFA Champions League for breaching UEFA’s financial rules, Wolves striker Jimenez said he and his teammates were hopeful.
He said they were setting their sights on a spot in Europe’s premier club competition.
“This is our spirit, it’s what characterises us. We fight to the end in every game, keep going and keep winning. We’re proud of this game and we have to keep going to achieve more goals, we are looking at top five” he said.
For Mourinho, the defeat makes the task of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League that little bit more difficult.
But Mourinho was left annoyed by Attwell for failing to book Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves in the opening exchanges.
“In the first minute of the game Ruben Neves makes a tackle on Lucas Moura going into attacking spaces,” Mourinho said.
“That is nothing to do with the result of the game but something I would like (clarified) one day when I have the opportunity to ask the PGMOL people.
“The game is from the first to the last second and what happened, I don’t think the referee has to look to the watch. If there is a penalty in the first minute, it’s a penalty. If there is a red card, there’s a red card. If there’s a yellow card, there’s a yellow card.
“That is a yellow card and that is a way the referee shows immediately what you can do and what you cannot do.
“In the last minute, they did the same with (Leander) Dendoncker that the referee correctly gave a yellow card. And I think that’s the way a team has to play football. That’s the way they did.
“The referee is there to punish, but they (Wolves) had the correct mentality and I think we were punished.”
“They are so powerful on the counter-attack. We tried different solutions. It worked in a way because we scored two goals.
“I think it’s unfair. The result, totally unfair,” Mourinho added, before calling for more fight from his players.
“We don’t have that aggression. We are too good, too nice. That was maybe the only difference between the teams.”