Mourinho reflekterar över förlust
Barcelona tog revansch för fjolårets förlust mot Chelsea i Champions League. Efter 1-1 på Camp Nou får Chelsea koncentrera sig på ligan och FA-cupen.
José Mourinho härledde i första hand förlusten till matchen på Stamford Bridge.
Om förlusten:
“When a team lose 2-1 at home, in the history of the Champions League, only a couple of teams have changed the game away from home. For me the crucial point was the result at Stamford Bridge. We haven’t seen two games when both teams had 11 players. We haven’t seen Barcelona win against 11 players. At this level of football, small details can make a big difference. When I was coach with Porto, we scored a goal in the last minute and that got us through (mot Man United, min anm). Last season against Liverpool, we couldn’t score with one minute to go when we had a chance and we went out. This season we play almost an hour with ten men.”
Om Barcelona:
“Barcelona are certainly a great team. We are completely different teams. They have great qualities in one aspect, we have great qualities in another. But if they are in the next round, they deserve to be there. They can think about the quarter-final, we can think about the Premiership and the FA Cup.”
Om Chelseas insats:
“It was a performance where we knew we have to score one goal. I was saying to the players, even if we score in the 85th minute, we have big chances. But when you score in the 91st minute, it is very difficult. If we couldn’t play the game Barça wanted. They were different to normal. They were pressing much more, they were more defensive, the lines were much more compact. They were waiting for counter-attack for the chance and to score and kill us. I am not staying we had 20 chances to score. In the first-half, we had a good situation for Joe Cole to score and another one for Arjen Robben. In the second-half we had a great chance for Hernán Crespo. If you score one of those chances, the pressure is on them. But we couldn’t do it.”
Förra året hoppades Mourinho på att Liverpool skulle vinna Champions League-titeln efter semifinalförlusten. Men nationalismen tar överhand den här gången:
“I’d like Benfica to win it but I don’t know whether they can win tomorrow. I was at Barcelona for four years which I enjoyed but I am a true Portuguese.”
