Mourinho: Bristol City win 'good for football'
Despite lining up the likes of Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial, the Red Devils were knocked out in a tense encounter at Ashton Gate.
Though the Special One claimed that Lee Johnson’s men had been “lucky”, he said that such a defeat (United’s fourth against lower-league opposition in seven years) was “good for football.”
"They were a bit lucky but they fought a lot to be lucky. Everyone was waiting for our goal so they were lucky. We hit the post twice,” the former Inter Coach claimed.
"But they played brilliantly, they fought like it was the game of their lives which probably it was. A beautiful day for football."
The Special One wasn’t so happy with some of his players, hinting that the ten substitutions he had made from the Red Devils’ 2-1 win over WBA at the weekend may have been excessive, seeing as the players involved didn’t make the most of their opportunities:
"The reality is that the players that were on the pitch were the ones that were not in the last match," Mourinho added.
"They are the ones that are not going to be in the next match. I think they lost a good opportunity also to play semi-finals and also to have two more matches to play.
"But I don't want to blame the players at all because I think they were professional - it wasn't a case of 'we don't care about the game' or 'we don't have responsibility' or 'we don't have pride'.
"I think they showed they had that after the 1-0 [the first goal] and they had that until they scored the second goal in the last few seconds and we had no chance to react."