Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid will always have love for each other after how he pulled the club back up to the elite level in the early 2010s, but after defending Gianluca Prestianni’s racist incident with Vinicius Junior, many Madridistas have soured a bit on the Special One.
After a hard-fought 1-0 first leg victory over Benfica on the road, Real Madrid got the job done again, knocking Mourinho out of the Champions League with a 2-1 victory that was also sealed in the end by a great Vinicius Junior finish.
According to Madrid Zone, Mourinho’s latest knockout defeat means that the legendary Portuguese manager has now lost 10 straight Champions League knockout ties, with his last win coming more than a decade ago in 2014 when he managed Chelsea in his second stint at Stamford Bridge.
Worse yet, the 10 straight Champions League knockout losses are the most in a row suffered by any manager, meaning Real Madrid have handed Mou a humiliating record that lands him on the all-time worst list.
Although Mourinho and Benfica beat Real Madrid on the last day of the league phase to scrape into the Champions League knockouts ahead of the likes of Serie A champions Napoli, this record shows how long it has been since Mourinho was a truly top manager at the elite level of football.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.