Mourinho told Aguirre his players are much better, and a 3-0 win at Mestalla has Real Madrid level with Barcelona

José Mourinho had a message for Javier Aguirre after Real Madrid’s 3-0 win at Mestalla on Saturday night, and he was happy to repeat it to reporters. “Don’t be sad because my players are much better than yours,” he said he told the Valencia coach, whom he called a friend and a great manager.

The win takes Madrid to 30 points from 12 games, level with Barcelona at the top of La Liga. Barcelona have a game in hand and play it at Atlético Madrid on Sunday night, with kick-off at 1:30am IST on Monday. Atlético are third on 28, so whatever happens at the Metropolitano, Madrid will be at least a point off the top by Monday morning.

Valverde, then Güler

It took Madrid 28 minutes to break through. Kylian Mbappé’s free-kick hit the wall, the rebound fell to Federico Valverde on the edge of the box, and he curled it into the bottom corner. Valverde had also scored Madrid’s stoppage-time winner against AEK Athens in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Eight minutes later it was 2-0. Jude Bellingham crossed from the left byline, the ball took a deflection off Pepelu, and Arda Güler side-footed it in at the back post.

Mbappé scores, Gayà sees red

Güler made the third as well. In the 75th minute he slipped Mbappé through, and the Frenchman went round Stole Dimitrievski and rolled the ball into an empty net. Four minutes later Valencia captain José Gayà brought Mbappé down as the last man and was sent off.

“The situation with the red card, viewed from a distance, seems very clear to me,” Mourinho said. He was full of praise for the referee, with the home crowd protesting for much of the night: “From the bench it seemed to me that the referee did a brilliant job.”

Madrid finished with 19 shots to Valencia’s four. Dimitrievski kept the score down with saves from Güler, Mbappé and Bellingham.

Valencia stay 19th

Aguirre’s side remain 19th on nine points, one behind Elche in 17th. His only win since taking over came 1-0 at Elche last Sunday. Valencia expect this to be their last season at the old Mestalla before the move to the Nou Mestalla, and so far it has not been much of a send-off.

Mourinho’s complaint about the schedule

Mourinho was less happy with the fixture list. Madrid played away to Racing Santander last Sunday, in Athens on Wednesday and at Valencia on Saturday, and his internationals now head straight off to their national teams. “Let them give us a break after this marathon of travel and matches, from Sunday to Saturday, which has been too much,” he said, adding that he was running a fever himself.

Vinícius Júnior served the last game of his four-match league ban here. He will be available again when the league resumes after the international break.

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