Mourinho opens up about odd Lukaku penalty decision

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London, Nov 2: Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has defended his decision of not letting the main striker Romelu Lukaku taking the penalty kick during their 2-0 Champions League win over Benfica.

United missed a penalty in the first half of the match when a sloppy execution from Anthony Martial was spared by Benfica's 18-year-old keeper Mile Svilar. However, the home team was awarded yet another penalty in the second half when they were 1-0 up.

And without a goal in the last five matches, Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku rushed to get the ball to end his goal drought when his team was granted a penalty in the 78th minute.

However, with Lukaku prepared to end his goalless spell and secure the win, United manager Jose Mourinho instructed the Belgian not to take the spot kick and told from the sideline, he wanted another person to take the spot-kick.

Spanish substitute Ander Herrera also showed his eagerness to take the kick, but Mourinho instructed the Dutch left-back Daley Blind to take the kick which he duly delivered.

Lukaku earlier missed a penalty this season against Leicester and Mourinho afterwards suggested that the forward was since then revised from taking the spot kick and would only be allowed to take another penalty when there is no pressure in the game.

And after the match, when Mourinho was asked a clarification about the confusion about the penalty incident he said: "Because I am the manager and I make the decisions. He missed the last one and I want him to take a penalty when there is no pressure, there is no responsibility and there is no need to scoring the goal.

"We are playing Champions League - we need points. We are not even now, with 12 points, we are not even qualified. It is an important moment of the game with 10 or 12 minutes to go, one nil, I want a player free of the pressure of missing the last one.

"I am really happy with his personality, I am really happy that he wants to take the responsibility. I am here, sometimes, to protect players and to protect the team. In that moment, I protect him. Maybe Blind misses but in that moment, I need to protect him because he missed the last one."

United are currently positioned second behind league leaders Manchester City and in their next game, it will see them travel to Stamford Bridge for a Premier League clash with Chelsea this Sunday.