Penalty pick puts Jose on defensive
Mourinho’s decision to not use Lukaku draws unwelcome spotlight
MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho angrily defended not allowing Romelu Lukaku to take a penalty during Tuesday’s 2-0 Champions League win over Benfica.
Lukaku made a blistering start to his United career after joining from Everton, scoring 11 goals in his first 10 games, but has now gone six matches without finding the net.
Mourinho made a point of defending Lukaku after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, but when United won a second-half penalty against Benfica on Tuesday, he instructed Daley Blind to take it.
“I don’t understand why everyone asks me the same question,” Mourinho said when queried about his decision during his post-match media conference at Old Trafford.
“I’m paid to take decisions, good or bad. In the first half, the decision was bad because the player I chose to take the penalty (Anthony Martial) missed.
“In the second half I made another decision. I don’t see the drama because there is no drama. The penalty taker for this match was Martial. He took it in the first half and missed.
“He was not even on the pitch when the second one was awarded. And then I have to make a decision. Romelu wants to take it. (Ander) Herrera the same.
“But my decision, based on what we did in training in the past couple of days, was Blind. The players respected my decision. That’s it, end of story.”
Martial’s 15 th-minute spotkick was stopped by Benfica goalkeeper Mile Svilar after Douglas had been penalized for handball.
But Svilar, who had carried Marcus Rashford’s freekick into his own net to gift United victory in the reverse match in Lisbon, proved Benfica’s fall guy again when Nemanja Matic’s strike hit the post and bounced into the net off his arm.
Blind settled matters in the 78th minute by drilling a penalty down the middle of the goal following a foul on Rashford by Andreas Samaris.
Mourinho directed a shushing gesture at the camera after Saturday’s win over Spurs, and after Blind netted the Portuguese appeared to send another message to his critics by he clacking his fingers together, apparently signifying chatter.
Asked to explain it, he replied: “I don’t remember.”
Nearly there
United’s fourth straight Group A victory sent it six points clear at the top, but CSKA Moscow’s 2-1 win at Basel means Mourinho’s side still requires a point from its last two matches to rubberstamp a last-16 berth.
Mourinho played down the importance of finishing top of the group, which theoretically guarantees a kinder draw in the next round.
Yet with United having graced the tournament only once in the previous three seasons, he would like to see his team win all six of its group matches.
“Sometimes a team finishes first and gets an extremely difficult draw,” he said.
“Other times you finish second and you are so lucky to get some team that nobody expected to finish first.
“We want to win the maximum possible points. I also know we haven’t qualified yet. We are going to try to win the next two matches and finish with 18 points.
“The last time Manchester United was in the Champions League (in 2015-16), they finished third and went out. So the year it would be nice to do 18 points.”
Benfica head coach Rui Vitoria defended 18-year-old Svilar after his second error against United in as many weeks.
“Svilar is still a junior. He’s still 18 years old,” said Vitoria.
“He did a lot. In today’s match he showed what he’s capable of. We know what he’s capable of and he played well.”
Benfica is six points adrift of CSKA and Basel but Vitoria is not throwing in the towel yet.
“There are still two games to play,” he said.
“With six points, you can go to the Europa League, stay in the Champions League or get nothing.”