As always, José Mourinho spoke briefly about tomorrow's game against FC Barcelona in Valdebebas' press room. Real Madrid's coach didn't want to unveil his team for tomorrow, but he did say that Higuaín and Benzema won't play together this Clásico, although nobody expected to see both of the strikers on the pitch.
I can't tell you whether Modric, Özil or Kaká will feature. I've already told you that Higuaín and Benzema won't play together.
The Camp Nou is expected to show a mosaic of Catalunya's flag. The crowd will also chant "Independència" at the 17th minute of each half. Mourinho doesn't want to mix politics with football.
For me, it's only about football. I don't want to talk about politics.
Real Madrid's coach also dealt with questions about Mesut Özil. The German playmaker has been on the bench in Real Madrid's last few games.
I think it is about time to stop making stories about players that are on the bench. My job is to make lineups for every game. Another journalist asked me about him after the game against Ajax, and his question had an answer in it when he said that he was lacking quality and minutes at the same time. I don't want to speak any more about this.
Mourinho said his team is ready:
I trust my players even during bad moments. They've changed from their poor start of the season and the credit for that goes to them. We're traveling to Barcelona on matchday because that's what they like, but also because we don't need any special motivational speech before these games.
There has been some controversy in Spain about the referees after Barcelona's last win against Sevilla.
Some things have happened since the season started, but nobody from Real Madrid spoke about it and I'm not going to be the one that changes that.
He concluded the press conference by saying that there's a responsibility beneath the Clásicos.
The whole world stops and watches. All three teams, Real Madrid, Barcelona and the referees, need to be responsible.