Jose Mourinho let rip at his Benfica players following the 2-0 victory over Atlético CP on Friday, claiming he wanted to make nine substitutions at halftime due to their “unacceptable” attitude.

Benfica ultimately got past the third-tier side in the fourth round of the Taça de Portugal, but only after late goals from Richard Ríos and Vangelis Pavlidis.

“In the first half, Benfica didn’t play, and worse than not playing, Benfica wasn’t on the field,” Mourinho, famous for his postmatch tirades, said.

“And worse than not being on the field was having so many players with an attitude that is not acceptable even in training. Because in training we compete so much that I can’t even remember a single training session where the attitude was what we had today.

“Right from the first minute, there were absolutely ridiculous turnovers.”

He added: “The first half was so bad that at halftime I told the players I was going to change four — I wasn’t going to change five because I couldn’t play 45 minutes without a substitution up my sleeve — but I would have liked to change nine.

“For me, as a coach, to want to change nine, it means things were really bad. Not bad in the sense of feeling any risk of being eliminated, feeling any risk of not winning the game, but things were bad because I have a concept of professionalism that some things are hard for me to accept.

“In the second half, we didn’t change nine players, but we changed four, and those four gave the team a completely different attitude. They helped the team to be much more pressing, much more intense, much more dynamic.”

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Mourinho joined Benfica earlier this year and the club are third in Liga Portugal behind Porto and Sporting. They have lost all four of their Champions League group games under the two-time Champions League winner, although they are now safely through to fifth round in the cup.

“It was a question of whether the goal would come in the 50th, 60th, 70th, or 80th minute, but it had to come as it did,” Mourinho said.

“I think that, ultimately, it was a fair victory for us, a normal victory for us, and congratulations to Atlético, once again, may they return to being the Atlético we know.”