Champions League: Real Madrid’s pride restored after late victory from City

Jose Mourinho said the “honour” of his Real Madrid team had returned after they battled to snatch a dramatic late victory against Manchester City.

“It’s a good win because the honour of my team is back,” said the Real coach.

“We should have won the match much before the last minute.”

Real won the Spanish league last season by nine points and became the first club to break 100 points in doing so.

Real, who have only taken four points from their opening four La Liga games, were 2-1 behind with three minutes remaining before Karim Benzema and then Cristiano Ronaldo turned the game around.

“We were lacking in confidence and in the circumstances it was difficult to play any better than we did,” added the former Chelsea manager.

“We have won back our DNA, we’ve got three points, our last game in this phase is at home and we have a good chance of qualifying from a difficult group.”

Asked what he was thinking when his side grabbed the winner, the Portuguese boss said: “In my brains were a few computers – delete everything that was ready to be written and write again.

“It doesn’t matter about my celebration, what mattered was the match and the way people who love football around the world enjoyed this match for sure.

“For me as a coach, more important than the win is to be proud of my team, whatever the result.

“I kept saying as things were not going in the right direction that Real Madrid can lose matches like tonight’s, Real Madrid can lose matches fighting like animals.

“But Real Madrid cannot lose matches like the match in Getafe or the match in Seville.”