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Mourinho lambasts Pepe for red card

Pepe was sent off for headbutting Thomas Mueller as he sat on the floor © Getty Images

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Jose Mourinho has reopened his war of words with Pepe by insisting the defender let Portugal down by getting sent off in the 4-0 defeat against Germany on Monday.

Portugal opened up their World Cup campaign in calamitous fashion with an emphatic defeat that leaves them up against it in their bid to qualify for the knockout stages in Brazil.

Their cause was not helped when Pepe was shown a red card for headbutting Thomas Mueller while he sat on the floor.

"The fact that he's not even a Portuguese man, I think that should put even more pressure on him to behave in a certain way, which he didn't," Mourinho told Yahoo Sports.

Mourinho fell out with Brazilian-born Pepe during his final season in charge of Real Madrid, dropping the defender for Raphael Varane.

Pepe had publicly questioned Mourinho by telling him to show Iker Casillas more respect when his then-manager said he wished he had signed the club captain's rival goalkeeper Diego Lopez sooner.

"Maybe it doesn't deserve a direct red card, but deserves [punishment]," added Mourinho. "Because in spite of not being a clear aggression, there is a body language that many, many times pushes the referees to have these kinds of decisions.

"To leave a team playing with 10 men for such a long time is obviously a big handicap for the team."

Mourinho also admitted he wasn't holding out much hope for a Portugal victory on Monday, given their performances against the big teams at recent international tournaments.

"If I go a bit back and I analyse the Portugal performances in the last appearances in World Cups and European Championships, Portugal doesn't get big results against the best teams," he said.

"If I go back to the last European Championships, we lost against Spain on penalties. We also lost against Germany. In the last World Cup, we couldn't score against Spain and Brazil.

"So to say I expect Portugal to beat Germany or to expect Cristiano [Ronaldo] to score three or four goals like he does against other teams, I would be lying.

"At the same time, I was expecting a game that was much more balanced. I know the circumstances were difficult and playing with 10 men for such a long time, but 4-0 is disappointing."

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