Mourinho holds El Clasico match responsible for Champions League exit

London, Apr 27(ANI): Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has blamed his team's Spanish La Liga fixture with Barcelona four days before their Champions League semi-final match against German giants Bayern Munich for their elimination from the latter competition.

Mourinho saw his Los Blancos miss out on a place in the May 19 showpiece as they suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat to Bayern Munich.

Real, trailed 2-1 from the first leg, but raced into a 2-0 lead inside 15 minutes at the Bernabeu due to a double from Cristiano Ronaldo, but Bayern leveled the tie through Arjen Robben's penalty just before the half hour mark.

Mourinho bemoaned the fact that his side had to play Barcelona in a critical match for the Primera Division just four days ago.

He believes the additional strain put on his players from beating Barca on Saturday, whilst Bayern rested a host of players against Werder Bremen, proved decisive.

"We deserved to win, mainly because the matches were very even and it is a completely different situation when a team plays for a championship against a side that doesn't," The Daily Mirror quoted Mourinho, as saying.

"I had the same situation when Chelsea played Liverpool in a semi-final. Liverpool were 30 points off the top and played a reserve team at Fulham whilst Chelsea fought every game to win the championship that season," he added.

"If we weren't playing to win the title, we would have had fresher players, but the team were fantastic in terms of their physical condition. Barcelona played the Clasico and then two days later lost to Chelsea, this has incredible value," he said. (ANI)