Jose Mourinho refuses to criticise referee Howard Webb after Real Madrid lose to Bayern Munich

Jose Mourinho pictured in Munich (GETTY IMAGES)

Jose Mourinho refused to comment on the performance of English referee Howard Webb in his side's 2-1 Champions League semi-final first leg defeat by Bayern Munich last night, except to say that the Bavarians' first goal was offside.

"I don't criticise the referee, I accept his decisions," Mourinho, who has a reputation for doing exactly the opposite, told reporters.

"They scored a goal which should have been disallowed but that doesn't give me any reason to criticise.

"A draw would have been a fairer result. This is football, whoever scores wins and the game ends when it ends, nothing else."

"It's not a terrible result," he added after Bayern snatched a win with a last-minute goal.

"We wanted to win, you start to feel it's going to be difficult, the two teams were tired, there was a lot of fighting for the ball and when it seemed it would be a draw, they scored."

Although it was a fractious encounter, Bayern's 66-year-old coach Jupp Heynckes thought it used to be worse in the old days.

"It's the semi-final of the Champions League, so it was always going to be a physical match and both teams showed that," he said.

"When I think of the old European Cup, especially against Italian teams, those were hard fights back then, often very difficult.

"I think the referee, apart from a few incidents, had a good game."

Reuters