Mourinho hails his players after Real Madrid edge Elche 3-2, says ‘This team reacts, wins’

​Mourinho, however, admitted Elche gave his team a good game, noting that their stadium was full of “fantastic supporters”.

​By Kehinde Okeowo

​Real Madrid manager José Mourinho has praised his players for showing resilience and picking up three points despite facing a difficult match, noting, “This team reacts and wins.”

​The Portuguese tactician made this known on Tuesday night while speaking to the media in the press room of the Martínez Valero stadium after his team’s 3-2 victory against Elche.

​Real Madrid cruised to a two-goal lead at half-time that could and should have put them out of sight of basement-dwellers Elche.

​Los Blancos opened the scoring in the 25th minute when Arda Güler looped a set-piece over the wall, and it bounced off the left-hand post into the net after grazing Elche’s goalkeeper, Matías Dituro.

​The La Liga giants doubled their advantage eight minutes later after Yan Diomandé found Kylian Mbappé, who in turn tucked the ball away into the corner of the net.

​In the second half, Elche halved the deficit through Abiel Osorio, who found space to leap and head the ball down and away from Courtois in the Madrid goal.

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​The equaliser came 12 minutes later, as a complacent Real again invited Elche to run at their defence. Thomas Lemar found Osorio, who then spotted Fer Niño in the middle where the substitute had time to pick his corner.

​Carlos Espí, however, saved the day for Mourinho’s side after scoring the winner for the visitors in injury time.

​Addressing journalists after the encounter, the former Chelsea boss blamed his team’s inability to finish off the match on poor marksmanship.

​He also hailed Elche and their fans for giving his side a good game, adding, “This kind of Spanish stadium, full and with fantastic supporters, in a game against Real Madrid, they fight until the last moment.”

​”The problem seems obvious to me. It’s harder to know why, but it’s easy to understand that there are matches that seem over and, in the end, aren’t. Matches where we have three, four, five chances to finish them and don’t. After failing to do so, it feels like we go from ease, because it seemed easy, to losing control. It’s like we fall into a dynamic of ‘okay, we didn’t score, we didn’t finish with a three or four-nil, but it’s over.’ It feels like when everything seems easy, and you let things slide,” Mourinho said.

​He added, “This kind of Spanish stadium, full and with fantastic supporters, in a game against Real Madrid, they fight until the last moment. A goal and the match is wide open. The good thing is that, in the face of difficulty and the pressure of dropping points, the team reacts and wins, which is ultimately the most important thing. Another good thing is that in Real Madrid matches, no one gets bored because they are very entertaining.”