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Mourinho not thinking about El Clasico as Madrid take things one game at a time
Mourinho not thinking about El Clasico as Madrid take things one game at a time

Jose Mourinho "won't spend a minute" thinking about this weekend's Clasico showdown with Barcelona until Real Madrid have navigated their midweek Champions League assignment.

Madrid thrashed Sevilla 4-1 in LaLiga on Sunday, with Kylian Mbappe helping himself to a brace and being joined on the scoresheet by Arda Guler and Yan Diomande.

Los Blancos are now six points behind league leaders Barca, who they will face at Camp Nou on Sunday. 

In his first stint with Madrid between 2010 and 2013, Mourinho won five of the 17 matches he oversaw against Barca (D6 L6), with three of those victories coming in nine away games (D3 L3).

But with a Champions League clash with RB Leipzig to come on Wednesday, Mourinho is not looking too far ahead.

"There is the Champions League to play first, and that's the only game we are thinking about. I won't spend even a minute thinking about our opponent for next Sunday until Wednesday at 11pm," he said when asked about El Clasico.

"There's no way to quantify which 11 players deserve to play the most. Many people deserve to play, and today some came on, and others didn't leave the bench at all. 

"For example, the player who scored the winning goal against Roma [Antonio Rudiger] didn't even play. We had more possession, more control of the game, created a lot, and got the ball to our wide players a lot. It was a very good game."

After Madrid's 4-1 win, Sevilla boss Luis Garcia was furious that Guler was not sent off for an apparent elbow on Peque Fernandez, but Mourinho was bemused by that reaction.

"I don't comment on that. No one has managed to show me what they say happened. I haven't seen a single image," he said.

"I've asked my analysts and the TV people for images, and I haven't been able to see any image of the things they are talking about that upset Luis. 

"If one day something happens that I believe benefited us, I'll have no problem coming out and saying it, but I think the opposite is more likely to happen because it's the natural trend of things."

Asked if he had any brief concern about Guler getting suspended for the Barcelona game, which Vinicius Junior is already banned for, Mourinho reiterated: "I haven't thought for a minute about El Clasico, only about winning this game. 

"For a coach who loses by four goals and is given the opportunity to answer four or five questions about that… it's fantastic because it allows him to talk about other things. 

"When the situation happened, I looked at the tablet and I didn't see anything. Have any of you seen it? That's why I don't understand the obsession with so many questions about this story."

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