Mourinho questions Liverpool
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho wasted no time in raising the temperature ahead of the Champions League re-match with Liverpool at Anfield tomorrow night by claiming the Merseysiders were not the best team in Europe last season.
Rafael Benitez’s side beat Chelsea in the semi-final last season with a disputed winner from Luis Garcia but the Portuguese coach continues to taunt his opponents by insisting he will never accept the ball crossed the line for their goal.
Indeed, Mourinho went as far as to remind Liverpool’s fans that the current score between the two clubs since he took charge at Stamford Bridge stands at 3-1 in his favour.
Although Benitez’s side went on to win the trophy on penalties against AC Milan last term, Mourinho insists they were not the best team in the competition.
Mourinho declared: “We cannot prove we are the best team in Europe, nobody can do that. Because many times the Champions League winner is not the best team in Europe. I was a Champions League winner and I keep saying the same thing.”
When asked if he thought Liverpool were the best team in Europe last season, Mourinho replied: “No. Last season, the team which played the most beautiful football in the Champions League was Barcelona. They played fantastic football but we beat them so we must deserve credit for that. But Barcelona was a team that played better football.
“Liverpool has a lot of credit because of what they did. No doubts about that, especially what they did in the final. It was great. They also beat Chelsea without scoring a goal but they beat Chelsea.”
Tomorrow’s match in the Champions League is the first of two meetings inside five days between the two clubs and, clearly smarting from recent criticism their brand of football is ‘boring’, Mourinho insists almost the whole world will want Chelsea to lose both encounters.
He was responding to comments made by Liverpool’s giant striker Peter Crouch who said over the two games against the reigning Barclays Premiership champions, it would be like ‘England against Chelsea’.
“I read that Peter Crouch said that tomorrow and Sunday will be England against Chelsea,” Mourinho said. “But I think it is the world against Chelsea.
“It is just my players, people on the Kings Road and the Fulham Road and the 50,000 people back in my home town of Setubal who will be for Chelsea and after them, it is the world against us.
“People want us to lose all the time. When Manchester United dominated the Premiership, it was not boring. When Arsenal dominated the Premiership, it wasn’t boring. We are not dominating, we just won seven matches and it is boring.”
Mourinho insists he will not use last season’s controversial winner in the semi-final as motivation for his players to overcome Liverpool this time around even though Luis Garcia’s ‘goal’ clearly rankles with him.
He added: “The motivation for tomorrow is to try and get nine points as soon as we can. So if we go home with six points it is fantastic. If we go home with four is not bad and if we go home with three, it is not a disaster.
“We are still winning 3-1. So I do not think the game is a question of revenge. But if you are persistent and want to talk about the same thing all the time, let’s go for revenge. We are beating them 3-1.
“We beat them twice in the Premiership, we beat them in the Carling Cup final and drew with them in the Champions League semi-final and they beat us in the semi-final, so it is 3-1 for us.
“They didn’t score in the semi-final against us but I accept they beat us. They played in the final and we stayed at home, so of course I accept it.
“I was upset at that time but not any more. They beat us but they didn’t score. I will say that for all my life but it doesn’t mean I am sad. There are certain highlights in your career that you never forget and I won’t forget the goal nobody saw.
“In five matches, we beat them three times, they beat us once and we drew once. The game in Anfield where everybody says they beat us was, I think, a zero-zero draw.
“I read somewhere that Liverpool know how to beat us but again I say it is 3-1 to us, so they also know how to lose.”
But Mourinho’s parting shot was to put more pressure on Benitez’s side for their Premiership clash at the same venue on Sunday by suggesting defeat for their opponents would put an end to their title aspirations for yet another season.
“The difference between the two matches is that tomorrow both teams are in a very good situation,” he explained. “But on Sunday it is a competition where we are in a very good situation and they are not.
“So, tomorrow, if somebody loses it is not a drama because there is still four matches to achieve nine points. But if they lose on Sunday, I think it is (the) finish for them.”
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