Pellegrini fires back at Mourinho without raising his voice: "We won because we finished our chances, not because of the referee"

Mourinho lost and, as usual, he didn't stay quiet. Real Madrid's Portuguese coach came out questioning Betis' victory with some pointed remarks: he said the Betis side "played for a draw" and even hinted that their players tried to influence the referee. The line that generated the most noise was about an alleged dive by Fran Garcia: "I thought the ambulance was coming," the Portuguese coach said, referring to a play involving the Betis fullback.

On the other side of the ring was Manuel Pellegrini, who doesn't need to raise his voice to respond. The Chilean, true to his calm style, addressed the accusations without losing his composure, making clear that his team's win rests on footballing arguments, not refereeing controversy.

I don't think we played with any particular roughness. I think both teams fought for the ball. I don't believe there was any major refereeing influence on the game. If there was one yellow card more or less, I don't think that's decisive for the result of the match.Manuel Pellegrini

The "Engineer" went further and explained, with his trademark calm, why Betis' 1-0 win over Real Madrid was no fluke and had nothing to do with any refereeing favor. For the Chilean, the result comes down to something much simpler: who was sharper in front of goal and who defended better at the back.

We didn't win the match because of the referee. We won it because we converted one chance and they couldn't convert the ones they had, whether because they ran into Alvaro Valles or because they missed the penalty they were awarded. That's how results in soccer work: specific moments decide games, but I don't think the referee was the reason.Manuel Pellegrini

The man between the posts

If there's one player Pellegrini wanted to single out in his response, it was Alvaro Valles. The goalkeeper became the standout figure of the afternoon with at least three decisive saves on Real Madrid's set piece attempts, on top of stopping the penalty the visitors missed. The coach himself made that clear when describing the match.

"They had some very dangerous chances from set pieces where Alvaro Valles made three really, really good saves, but in the end we scored the goal and we took the three points against a great rival, in a very tightly contested match that probably would also have been a fair result had it ended in a draw," the Betis boss said.

Far from entering the war of words that Mourinho tends to stir up, Pellegrini chose his usual path: talking about the game itself, the goalkeeper, the goal and the missed penalty. No talk of refereeing, no conspiracies. Just soccer, described with the calm of someone who won and doesn't need to convince anyone of anything.