Mourinho decries alleged bullying of Vinicius

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho accused opponents and supporters of bullying Vinicius Jr, after the Brazil winger was targeted with rough treatment in the club's opening 2-1 La Liga win at Espanyol on Saturday.

Real, which kicked off Mourinho's return to the club with a late victory, was furious inside the opening five minutes when Alex Calatrava brought down Vinicius from behind and then appeared to catch him again while the forward was on the ground.

Madrid's players appealed for a red card, but the referee took no action against Calatrava, who later scored Espanyol's equalizer after Jude Bellingham had put Real ahead.

Late Real substitute Carlos Espi struck in the 90th minute to give the visitor the victory.

Mourinho said the treatment of Vinicius had become a recurring theme.

"Vinicius is no saint, but what they were doing to him was too much. Right from the first minute. It's a pattern that repeats itself from one opponent to the next," Mourinho said.

"I'll give him one, now you give him one. If I get a yellow card, you give him one. If I'm substituted, another player comes on who hasn't been booked yet, and you give him one."

The Portuguese coach said Vinicius, who has often been the focus of abuse from rival defenders and crowds, needed to stay composed despite the provocation.

"He needs to have a lot of emotional control. I've told him that if he scores a goal, he needs to be careful how he celebrates it," Mourinho said.

"We're in an era where society is against bullying, yet, with Vini, we're still seeing bullying from opponents and from the crowd. We have to educate him and prepare him as best we can, and that's it."

The controversy also carried echoes of last season, when Mourinho was Benfica manager and Vinicius was subjected to discriminatory abuse by Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni during a Champions League match against Real Madrid.

Prestianni was later handed a six-match suspension by UEFA for discriminatory conduct that was deemed to be homophobic in nature.

Mourinho was heavily criticized at the time for defending Prestianni, saying Vinicius had incited the crowd with his goal celebrations, and Benfica was anything but racist because the Portuguese club's greatest player, Eusebio, was also Black.

With Vinicius opting to stay at the Bernabeu, signing a contract extension earlier this month, Mourinho insisted in the Spanish media that the Brazilian now knows his coach is on his side.

He told Spanish outlet AS last week: "Prestianni was my player. That's it. Twenty players can come at me, and I'm still (with my player). I think Vini knows now ... he can look at me and count on me to stand alongside him."

Espi grabs the glory

Bellingham opened the scoring, and new signing Espi secured the points at the death, starting Mourinho's second spell at the club with last-minute win.

"I think that we deserved to win, but Espanyol didn't deserve to lose," Mourinho told reporters.

"They didn't have any players at the World Cup and have been working together for a long time, and you could see that."

Back in charge of Madrid 13 years after leaving, the Portuguese veteran must bring the dressing room under control after the chaos of last season, and, much like his last stint at the Bernabeu, he has been tasked with ending Barcelona's domestic dominance.

Mourinho started his superstars Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham, as well as handing debuts to Bernardo Silva, Denzel Dumfries and Ibrahima Konate.

Bellingham had an excellent first season at Madrid after arriving from Borussia Dortmund, but the subsequent two were disappointing, both for him and the club, which failed to win a major trophy in either.

Mourinho installed him in attacking midfield with licence to roam, and England's World Cup star was heavily involved before netting the first goal of Mourinho's second tenure, heading home Arda Guler's dangerously crossed freekick.

Espanyol threatened midway through the first half, as Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois beat away Clemens Riedel's drive and Roberto Fernandez hooked a shot over the bar shortly afterwards.

Madrid did not heed the warning and Espanyol leveled in the 30th minute, Calatrava slotting home a Javi Hernandez cut-back after a fine team move.

Espanyol stopper Marko Dmitrovic made a good save to deny Mbappe after he got in behind on the right of the area.

The French forward, La Liga's top scorer in both of his two seasons at Madrid, was not at his lethal best.

Mourinho sent on two more new arrivals in the form of record signing Yan Diomande and Marc Cucurella, as Madrid sought a winner.

Federico Valverde hit the outside of the post with a low effort from the edge of the box, as Espanyol dug deep to deny Madrid. However, in the 90th minute, Madrid found the goal it needed when former Levante striker Espi, the lowest profile purchase for Los Blancos this summer, capitalized on a loose ball in the box and fired home.

"We carried out our plan well and then let in that goal at the end," said Calatrava.

"That was a gut-punch."

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