Mourinho sorry for Tito eye-poke

Posted Friday, August 10, 2012 by ESPN

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has conceded he was wrong to poke current Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova in the eye in the second leg of the Spanish Supercopa match last season.

The altercation occured after the match where Barcelona emerged 3-2 victors, handing them the trophy as they emerged winners 5-4 on aggregate. In the melee, Mourinho appeared to calmly walk over to Vilanova before jabbing him in the eye and the then-assistant coach responded by striking Mourinho's head.

Vilanova was banned for the next Supercopa match and Mourinho for two matches, but both bans were overturned by the Spanish federation, paving way for both of them to meet again in the Supercopa this season.

Mourinho admitted that he lost control of himself in that occasion, while also assuring that there is no bad blood between him and Vilanova.

"I should obviously not have done what I did," Mourinho told a press conference while on tour with his club in the United States. "Nevertheless, there was a whole story behind that that made me lose a little control."

"The one who failed there was me, and I place plenty of emphasis these days on my players just to continue concentrating on games themselves and controlling their emotions.

"There lie no problems between Tito [Vilanova] and myself. We greeted each other normally in subsequent matches. Thankfully, the story is over and we must just hope to avoid such instances in the future."

Real Madrid were elimnated on penalties in last season's Champions League semi-finals and Mourinho believes that the continental trophy will not elude them for long.

He added: "Last year, we were only eliminated on penalties in Europe. We're close, and if we keep trying, one day it will happen."

The first leg of the Supercopa will be held at Camp Nou on 23 August and the second leg will be at the Santiago Bernabeu on 29 August.