José Mourinho says Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final defeat to Bayern Munich on penalties in 2012 was the only time he cried after losing in football, with the Portuguese believing his title-winning side was the best on the continent at the time.

Real and Germans Bayern were locked at 3-3 on aggregate after Mourinho’s men had won 2-1 at the Bernabeu to cancel out their opponents’ first-leg advantage. Cristiano Ronaldo scored both goals for his team in the second meeting, but Ronaldo along with Sergio Ramos and Kaka surprisingly missed their penalties in the shootout.

Spanish newspaper MARCA ran an article this week on how footballers recover from damaging defeats, with former Portuguese international Tiago Mendes taking part and speaking for the first time in depth about losing two Champions League finals while playing for Atletico Madrid.

The heartbreak for Tiago and his teammates was made worse by the fact both occasions saw them beaten by city rivals Real Madrid. First Atleti – who have lost all three European Cup finals they have played – conceded a stoppage-time equaliser in Lisbon before losing 4-1 in extra time in 2014, before suffering a penalty shootout defeat to the same opponents at San Siro two years later.

• Renato Sanches

The decision made by the French government this week to end the 2019-20 Ligue 1 season due to the Covid-19 pandemic has led to national newspapers publishing their Team of the Season early this year.

For Portugal midfielder Renato Sanches, there was a place in the starting line-up of the team produced by prestigious paper L’Equipe in recognition of a superb debut campaign with Lille.

As Roma coach Paulo Fonseca says he is already certain that Cristiano Ronaldo’s achievements have surpassed those of Portugal great Eusebio.

The former Paços Ferreira, Porto, Braga and Shakhtar Donetsk boss spoke with Fox Sports in an interview which also covered some of his compatriots in management such as Jorge Jesus and Jesualdo Ferreira.