JOSE MOURINHO made his Benfica players sleep at the club’s training ground following their 3-1 defeat to Braga last night.
The Lisbon giants were knocked out of the Taca de Liga at the semi-final stage after being stunned 3-1 by their visitors from the north.
Having missed out on a shot at silverware with his boyhood club, furious Mourinho admitted that he hoped his players would not sleep while staying at Benfica‘s Seixal training centre, around 10 miles from the Estadio da Luz.
And the 62-year-old even suggested that they might have to stay there until their next match in a week’s time.
Speaking after the match, Mourinho fumed: “The players will sleep in Seixal, and on Thursday there is training, and the day after there’s training.
“Since there’s no final on Saturday, our next game is against Porto next Wednesday.
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“When we arrive in Seixal, everyone will go to their rooms. I hope the players sleep as well as I do, which is to say that they don’t sleep at all.
“That’s what I wish for them. That they don’t sleep and instead think a lot, like I’m going to think.”
After Benfica spurned two early chances, it was Braga who took the lead at the Estadio Dr Magalhaes Pessoa on 18 minutes.
Pau Victor thwacked the ball beyond Anatoliy Trubin after finding himself wide open in the middle of the penalty area.
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Rodrigo Zalazar made it 2-0 just beyond the half hour, bursting through Benfica’s leaky defence with a mazy run before slotting past Trubin.
Mourinho’s men were handed a lifeline on 64 minutes, as star man Vangelis Pavlidis converted from the penalty spot.
But Braga reclaimed their two-goal advantage with 10 minutes remaining, as ex-Celtic defender Gustaf Lagerbielke was gifted a tap in from a set piece.
And to compound Benfica’s misery, ex-Manchester City centre-back Nicolas Otamendi saw red late on for taking his complaints to the referee too far.
Mourinho returned to Benfica last September just weeks after being axed by Fenerbahce.
The former Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham boss has struggled to get his boyhood club fully going since returning.
He has won 14 of his 23 matches in charge, drawing five and losing four.
Benfica are 10 points off the pace in the Portuguese top flight, and face an uphill battle to qualify for the next phase of the Champions League.
Next week’s Taca de Portugal quarter-final at Porto could represent Mourinho’s final chance to earn silverware this season.
Prior to last night’s defeat, Benfica had been on an 11-match unbeaten run.
Mourinho added: “On Thursday we can start talking, which isn’t what happened in the locker room.
“In the locker room it was a monologue, and monologues don’t work for me; I like to have a dialogue with the players.
“We’ll talk about the differences between the first and second halves and prepare in the best way possible for the game against Porto.”
