CONTE, MOURINHO FEUD BOILS OVER
Bitter rivals at each other again after FA Cup clash
of kicks. I don’t think I’m crazy.
“He started the match receiving kicks and he finished it receiving kicks.
“This is the truth and I don’t think one person can say this didn’t happen. It’s not football for me.
“It could be United’s tactic. Sometimes when you play against players with great talent you try to intimidate them.
“The referee must try to protect these type of players because they can go out with a bad injury.”
It was a chastening return to west London for former Chelsea boss Mourinho, who endured his old club’s fans calling him “Judas” and chanting “you’re not special anymore.”
Mourinho responded to the jibes by holding up three fingers to the crowd to remind them how many Premier League titles he won in his two spells with Chelsea.
And, determined to have the last word, Mourinho, sacked by the Blues last season, took the opportunity to remind Conte and Chelsea’s supporters that they have a long way to go to match his achievements at the Bridge.
“They can call me what they want. I’m a professional,” he said.
“I feel responsibilities on Chelsea’s bad Premier League last season, but when I left we were in the Champions League, winning the Champions League group. French international team-mate Pogba.
The Times player ratings awarded Kante 9/10 while Pogba received just four.
The paper opined of Kante: “buzzed around Pogba when United had the ball....” whilst for Pogba it labelled his performance as “Effectively stifled by Kante and failed to pick him up for the goal. Showed little incision and wasted his only
“Now they don’t play in Europe. It’s not my fault.
“Until the moment they have a manager that wins four Premier Leagues, I am number one.
“If a manager wins four I become number two. Until then, Judas is number one.”
Although Conte and Mourinho didn’t shake hands at full-time, the Italian insisted he had done nothing wrong in their touchline clash.
“It was hard work for the fourth official but I controlled my emotion very well today,” Conte said.
“It’s normal for the manager to push his players. What happens outside the pitch is just a circus.”
Conte saluted Hazard for refusing to be intimidated by United’s good chance.”
Pogba, for whom the criticism of his performances have become stronger in recent games, has only been substituted in just one of his 38 appearances this term.
Perhaps the only person to disagree with the assessment of the performances of the two players was United manager Jose Mourinho.
“The players were phenomenal bullying as N’Golo Kante’s superb second-half winner gave the Premier League leaders a Wembley semi-final showdown with London rivals Tottenham next month.
“For sure, he showed strong character. After the first 25 minutes, every player would have a fear of being kicked. It’s very dangerous to receive a kick from the back,” he said.
Inevitably, Mourinho refused to accept blame for his team’s approach and turned the focus on referee Michael Oliver’s decision to send off Herrera for what was one of the less vicious tackles on Hazard.
“Herrera’s second yellow card, compare that with (Marcus) Rashford going to attack the ball in a counter-attacking situation. He was fouled and the referee doesn’t give a booking,” Mourinho said.
“We all saw the game. We can all agree there was one match until Herrera saw the red card and another after that.” AFP but I would refer to one because he’s the one that the specialists enjoy to go after,” Mourinho told MUTV.
“Probably because in that time they were not getting 10 percent of the money he was getting.
“It probably comes from envy but I have to say, that for me Paul Pogba was by far the best player on the pitch.
“He was a giant.” AFP