According to AS, Mourinho's Real Madrid proved that luck can also be trained.

Another goalkeeper error in the Champions League helped Valverde score Real Madrid's second goal against Inter. Mourinho attributed this error to his players' pressing.

Football is not mathematics. Combining multiple factors does not guarantee the same result every time; sometimes a team also needs luck. Some believe this is merely coincidence, or a series of coincidences beyond human control that bring favorable or unfavorable results. But in football, things are not always like this. It is not just about luck, but about preparation meeting opportunity at a critical moment in the game.

Real Madrid's match against Inter last Tuesday exemplified this. In the 23rd minute, despite Real Madrid already leading, Inter still controlled the game. A mistake by Josep Martínez led to a familiar sight for Real Madrid in the Champions League: an opponent's goalkeeper gifting them a goal. The Inter goalkeeper struggled to handle the ball and then tried to change direction to evade Valverde. The Uruguayan forward touched the ball with his toe and ultimately scored Real Madrid's second goal.

When the score was still 1-0, effective pressing by Mbappé forced an error from Bissuma, allowing the French forward to score the opening goal. Mourinho, however, preferred to credit his opponents' errors to his players' efforts: "The players did a great job and won the game in difficult circumstances. I want to give credit to my players. Pressing can be trained, and the timing needed for pressing can also be trained. Don't just criticize—at least we did some things right."

These scenes at the Bernabéu against Inter are not unfamiliar to Mourinho. During his first stint as Real Madrid coach, the Portuguese manager had already experienced the Champions League favoring his team.

In the second leg of the 2010-11 Champions League quarter-finals against Tottenham Hotspur, Cristiano Ronaldo unleashed a powerful long-range shot that wasn't particularly difficult. Tottenham goalkeeper Gomes misjudged it; the ball slipped through his hands and rolled into the net. In the subsequent Champions League group stage, an attempt by Özil to clear a low cross ultimately led to Lyon goalkeeper Lloris scoring an own goal.

Since the 2007-08 season, Real Madrid has benefited from 30 goals in the Champions League due to goalkeeper errors. Not all of these goals stemmed from pressing, but some were crucial, such as the error in the 2018 Champions League final where Karius's mistake against Liverpool was capitalized on by Karim Benzema.

Mourinho understands the importance of this aspect of training and has always emphasized it to his players. After the match against Inter, the players once again discovered: luck can also be trained.

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