José Mourinho Prepares for Tough Match Against Valencia
José Mourinho does not scare easily. Not in Champions League finals, not in title run-ins, not in the glare of the Bernabéu. Yet on the eve of a league trip to Mestalla, he chose a striking word.
“I feel afraid of tomorrow's game,” he admitted, “and I mean afraid in quotation marks.”
A trip Mourinho does not trust
Real Madrid arrive in Valencia with heavy legs and a wary coach. The midweek journey to Greece to face AEK Athens drained them, physically and mentally, and Mestalla is no place to go half-charged.
“This match is one of the toughest games in the whole of La Liga,” Mourinho said, without softening the message.
The respect – and the edge of concern – runs straight through his assessment of Valencia and their coach.
“Valencia's coach is extremely difficult, he has great experience, he knows what he wants, and he has a clear philosophy in working with teams, so it will be an exceptionally difficult match.”
This is classic Mourinho: raise the opponent, harden his own side. But the travel schedule and the timing of the fixture have clearly left their mark.
Rest, recovery, and a long night at Valdebebas
Madrid’s return from Athens was brutal. The team landed at three in the morning. Instead of heading home, they went straight to Valdebebas – and stayed there.
“We arrived at three in the morning, but we stayed at Valdebebas, and no player went home, in order to get two extra hours of sleep,” Mourinho revealed.
It is an unusual detail, even by elite standards: a squad camping at the training ground to claw back precious minutes of rest. The data, he insists, is reassuring.
“The indicators that reached me are positive, and there is no need to exaggerate and portray things as catastrophic.”
The balance is delicate. Players are staring at a league test against a well-prepared side, and an international break looms immediately after. For Mourinho, the priorities are not even close.
“The national team is not my problem, and it does not worry me at all for a player to have the honour of representing his country,” he said. “The problem for me is tomorrow's match, against a team that is well prepared, that got a full week to get ready for the encounter, and that is led by a coach who is not worried about the way his team will play.”
The jab at the schedule arrived wrapped in sarcasm when he was asked about the decision to play on Saturday.
“Konaté and Huijsen will play tomorrow,” he said. “And thanks to the decision to hold the match on Saturday, the players who will join their national teams will be refreshed, and I will give them a day to rest.”
The words are polite. The tone, unmistakably, is not.
Valverde, the many-faced captain
If there was one clear positive from Athens, it was the reaffirmation of Fede Valverde’s growing stature. Madrid did not just come back from Greece with a result; they returned with a deeper conviction in their captain’s expanding influence.
Valverde’s versatility has become a weapon: midfielder, wide runner, link man, leader. Mourinho sees a player whose value stretches far beyond his tactical role.
“I cannot compare him to what he was last season, because I did not know him then,” he admitted. “He is a wonderful professional, a friend to his teammates, and he does not need to be a voice present every second, but he is always there as a role model for everyone.”
The captain’s armband at Real Madrid is a burden as much as an honour. Mourinho knows it, and he sees how it has reshaped Valverde.
“Officially giving him the captain's armband gave him a sense of responsibility, because carrying Real Madrid's captain's armband is not an easy matter.”
In a week of fatigue, travel, and tactical puzzles, Valverde stands as one of Mourinho’s certainties.
A tribute beyond football
The press conference turned from tactics and tiredness to something far more serious when Mourinho was asked about calls to cancel the round of fixtures following the death of Jesús de Miguel.
The Portuguese coach chose his words carefully, respectful but clear.
“According to the information that reached me, there will be a beautiful tribute ceremony, and I see that this matter carries an important significance,” he said.
He then framed the dilemma in stark, human terms.
“If it were possible to speak with Jesús and put the question to him, that would be the ideal decision, but since that is impossible, only his family and teammates can answer what Jesús would have preferred, and whether he would have wanted no football matches to be held, or to be remembered through a beautiful and comprehensive tribute from the whole of Spanish football.”
The game will go ahead. It will do so under emotion, under tribute, and under the weight of a demanding schedule.
For Mourinho, that schedule now funnels into one night at Mestalla, against a rested Valencia and a coach he plainly respects. His team arrive tired, patched together, and warned in no uncertain terms by their own manager.
Afraid “in quotation marks” or not, Real Madrid know exactly what awaits them.
