There’s a curse that has followed Mourinho since he started his coaching career back in September 2001 when he took charge of Benfica… and it’s penalty shootouts. Once again, Mourinho led one of his teams to ruin from the penalty spot, and Fenerbahçe was eliminated by Rangers in the Europa League round of 16.

Mourinho has lost 10 out of 12 penalty shootouts

The statistic is, of course, damning. José Mourinho has faced 12 penalty shootouts in his 25 seasons as a professional coach… and he has lost 10 of them. The only two times he was victorious from the penalty spot were with Inter in the 2008 Supercoppa Italia, where they defeated Roma, and in 2020 with Tottenham, in the Carabao Cup round of 16 against Chelsea.

In fact, this curse began during his first spell as coach of Chelsea in a League Cup match against Charlton in October 2005. Since then, including two defeats to Bayern in the Champions League semifinals with Real Madrid and the UEFA Super Cup with Chelsea, Mourinho has lost 10 out of 12 penalty shootouts.

Mourinho’s Protests

The latest one came last night as coach of Fenerbahçe against Rangers after managing to equalize the 1-3 deficit from the first leg. In fact, it was especially painful for Mourinho because, with less than five minutes to go, he appealed for a penalty that the referee did not call.

“The referee and VAR decided the match would be decided by penalties. We were the team at a disadvantage, as he didn’t call three penalties today,” Mourinho later said in a press conference, justifying his attitude. However, it’s possible that he himself was aware of the curse he carries with penalty shootouts and didn’t want to take Fenerbahçe to this point.