"You can't help but laugh": Mourinho sparks a surprise regarding the six-point gap with Barcelona

What did he say?

José Mourinho reopened the refereeing file once again after his Real Madrid side's 2-1 defeat to Atlético Madrid in the seventh round of La Liga. This time, though, he came at it from a different angle. The Real boss linked the six-point gap with leaders Barcelona to a series of refereeing decisions across the Catalan club's matches and his own in recent days.

Defeat left Real stuck on 15 points, behind Atlético Madrid on 16 and trailing leaders Barcelona on 21.

Asked about that six-point gap with Barcelona, Mourinho hinted that some of the recent refereeing decisions had helped widen it, then reeled off a list of incidents from both sides' matches.

The Portuguese coach added: "We saw some things on this pitch this week, the goal that was disallowed for Osasuna (against Atlético) on the grounds of a foul on Lucas Torró, and the penalty that was not awarded to Real Madrid in San Sebastián (against Real Sociedad). After all of that, you can only laugh."

His remarks came just minutes after Real lost the Madrid derby, a match riddled with refereeing controversy of its own. Real Madrid protested a string of decisions before Dean Huijsen was sent off at the start of the second half, with the score still goalless.

Mourinho arrived at the post-match press conference clutching printed images of the incidents that had drawn his objection.