Jose Mourinho has ordered his Benfica players to sleep at the club’s training ground after they were beaten by Braga in the Portuguese League Cup semi-finals.

 

 

 

His side suffered a 3-1 defeat on Wednesday night after being reduced to 10 men following the sending off of former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi.

 

 

 

 

Furious at his players, Mourinho revealed he has ordered the squad to remain at the club’s training base in Seixal for the foreseeable future to ‘think a lot’ about the cup exit.

 

 

 

 

‘Look, today, thinking we were going to play the final, we’re not going home, we’re going to Seixal,’ he said on Thursday. ‘The players will sleep in Seixal, and there’s training tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. But there’s no game on Saturday.

 

 

 

‘Since there’s no final on Saturday, our next game is against FC Porto next Wednesday. Upon arriving in Seixal, everyone will go to their rooms. I hope the players sleep as well as I do, which is to say, don’t sleep at all.

 

 

 

‘That’s what I wish for them. That they don’t sleep and think a lot, like I’m going to think. And then, tomorrow, 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.

 

 

 

‘We’re shaping up the game against FC Porto. Without Otamendi, without Antonio Silva, and most likely without Enzo. But let’s go, thinking we can win the game.’