Mourinho: Real Madrid beat Elche 3-2 after blowing 2-0 lead

Real Madrid came from 2-0 up to 2-2 before Carlos Espí settled the match in the 91st minute, beating Elche 3-2 in round six of La Liga. José Mourinho's side led through the first half but lost their grip after the break, and Elche twice pulled level before Espí, on for the winning goal three minutes from time,.

Mourinho took Arda Güler off in the 68th minute with Madrid 2-0 up, bringing on Jude Bellingham. Three minutes later Elche scored, and they equalised soon after. Asked whether the substitution had cost his side control of the game, Mourinho rejected the suggestion.

"No. When I substituted him, we had already lost control," he said, adding that no player, Güler included, is "untouchable".

He had started alongside Vinícius Júnior, who, along with Mourinho himself, was one of only two figures on the pitch to receive no rating at all from Marca in its post-match assessment. Espí took the top mark with three stars; Kylian Mbappé, Bellingham, Yann Diomandé and Güler each got two.

Mourinho gave a longer account of the win to reporters afterwards.

"Three points and nothing more. Same as saying 'Come on, Madrid!' — nothing more than that. After the first half, everyone had the feeling that in the second half we'd score three, four or five goals. But we dropped our intensity, gave away too much space, and when Bellingham and Brahim came on I tried to give the midfield more stability, because Vinícius and Güler were tired. But just as I was thinking about how to stabilise the game, they scored — 1-2 — and at grounds like this, packed to capacity, teams that look dead… come alive in an instant. Then they equalised — 2-2. But we have a very talented bench, with players of different qualities. I go for maximum risk… but a draw doesn't suit us. And we reacted very well. With the mentality that we couldn't afford to drop points. The finish was incredibly strong. We got what we wanted," Mourinho said.

He also had a lighter aside on the afternoon as a whole.

"Nobody gets bored at Real Madrid matches, because they're this much fun. It's good that in a difficult situation the team responds and wins — that's the main thing," he said, adding that he had only one complaint about his players, without elaborating on what it was.

Espí has now had a hand in matches at both ends of that run — on the wrong side of the video review against Betis, on the right side of a chaotic finish against Elche. Mourinho's insistence on going for the win rather than settling for a point suggests he is prepared to keep taking risks in games Madrid dominate only in patches, which may mean more afternoons like this one before the side finds a settled way of seeing out leads.