According to a report by GOAL on Monday, November 2, 2026, Jose Mourinho has questioned the decision to award Real Madrid a penalty during their 3-0 victory over Racing Santander in LaLiga, criticising VAR officials for failing to intervene.

The Portuguese manager believes the spot-kick was wrongly given following an incident involving Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni. He argued that the officials should have reviewed the situation more carefully before allowing the decision to stand.

Real Madrid secured a comfortable victory at El Sardinero, but the penalty controversy became one of the main talking points after the match.

Mourinho explained that he initially did not challenge the referee's decision because he was positioned too far away to see exactly what had happened. However, after watching a replay on a tablet, he became convinced that the penalty should not have been awarded.

"They change them so much, and the small details are such that people don't know that it's never a penalty by [Aurelien] Tchouameni because of the rebound from the ball," Mourinho said, as quoted by the club's official website.

"It's never a penalty. When the referee called a penalty, I stayed calm because from 60 meters away, I couldn't see it. But later, when I saw it on the iPad, I thought, if VAR doesn't mess up, that's not a penalty."

Despite his criticism of the decision, Mourinho praised the referee's overall performance, describing him as technically capable and disciplined during a competitive encounter.

Former Spanish referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez also questioned the decision, focusing on what he considered inconsistency in the use of VAR.

Gonzalez compared the incident with a similar situation during Getafe's match against Sevilla earlier on Sunday. He argued that VAR should have intervened in both cases if the incidents were sufficiently similar.

"If the VAR has intervened in Getafe-Sevilla for a hand to the face, it has to intervene for this; otherwise, there is no refereeing consistency," he said, according to Mundo Deportivo.

He added: "Why in one hour has it intervened in Getafe and not in Santander in a very, very similar action? For me, it is not a penalty.

Nevertheless, the controversy did not prevent Real Madrid from collecting all three points with their 3-0 victory.

Los Blancos will now prepare for their Champions League meeting with AEK on Wednesday before returning to domestic action against Valencia at the weekend.

Tighten the article’s repeated pointsMake the penalty analysis more neutralShorten the lengthy Mourinho quotations