Jose Mourinho was left frustrated following Fenerbahce's Europa League exit to Rangers on penalties and slammed an 'arrogant' referee and VAR official in the aftermath.
The Turkish side prevailed 2-0 on the night after a brace from Sebastian Szymanski within the initial 90 minutes at Ibrox, before being defeated in a shootout as former Premier League stars Dusan Tadic and Fred were denied by Jack Butland. But Mourinho was annoyed to have not won by a bigger margin after his team were denied three penalties across 120 minutes of action.
The former Real Madrid and Chelsea manager was adamant his team were the better side and warranted going through. Mourinho firmly placed the blame onto the officials for his team's exit.
"Best team on the pitch, by far. Not by close, by far," he said following the game. "We deserved to in after 90 minutes, we deserved to win after 120 minutes. We were the best team by far.
"In the first match I was honest and I had enough fair play to say we made mistakes, we deserve to lose, we lost. But in this match I have to also be honest and say we were the best team by far. We did everything to win, the referee and VAR decided we should go to penalties because three penalties during 120 minutes.
"Then on the penalties we miss three and Rangers go through, congratulations to them. I think my team deserves everything from me, from our supporters, even from Turkey as a country because we were the last club to represent Turkey in European competitions. Obviously I'm sad, especially for my boys because for them it was a dream to go through and to try and reach the final but I couldn't be more proud of them."
Mourinho and his bench cut animated figures throughout the clash, as they did not feel they rewarded what they were deserved. The Portuguese boss suggested he was the only one able to retain his composure amidst an 'arrogant' official, despite picking up a yellow card.
"The fourth official was a nice guy, he was not arrogant like the referee," Mourinho said. "He was a nice guy, trying to do his job. He was not making decisions, he was trying to put our bench calm. I was the only one calm, because everybody, especially the ones in front of the laptops, for them it's difficult to control.
"In relation to me the only thing that I hope is that everything that happens to my team in European competition since day one this season is not a consequence of the Budapest final, I hope that it's just random."
Mourinho was then asked if the latter was a true worry. The 62-year-old was banned for four games by UEFA after following Anthony Taylor to the stadium car park following the Europa League final in 2023 when his Roma side were defeated by Sevilla, and called referee Anthony Taylor a 'disgrace..
"Yes, because since that final, since my suspension after the Budapest final, these things that happen to us," he said. "We didn't play Champions League because of a penalty in minute 120 that only the VAR saw against Lille, We didn't win against Manchester United with a penalty that everyone saw.
"Today we come here and the VAR is considered one of the best, some guy from Holland, Van Boekel, he didn't see one of three penalties. I just hope it's random. I got the suspension, I paid for the suspension and I hope it is over and this is bad luck."
Rangers will now face Athletic Bilbao as they join Manchester United and Tottenham in the final eight of the competition. They will host the La Liga side in the first leg, before travelling away for the second.