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Jose: Thank God I’m not the boss I was.. I was not as calm or confident then but now I will make history at Spurs.. for the right reasons
JOSE MOURINHO has promised to turn Tottenham’s season around — and write his name into the club’s history books for “good reasons”.
The Tottenham boss is feeling the heat after a run of five defeats in his last six Premier League games and the Europa League provides some welcome respite.
Mourinho has earned 81 points from his first 50 games at Spurs, which is the lowest tally from any of his previous jobs and compares badly to his best of 126 from his first spell in charge at Chelsea.
But Mourinho insists he is a calmer, better all-round manager than when he first arrived in England in 2004 at Chelsea as the brash, selfproclaimed Special One.
“I feel very confident and I believe we are going to improve and I believe that I will be in Tottenham’s history for the good reasons and not for the bad reasons,” said Mourinho. “Thank God I am not the manager I was!
Because if there is no evolution in us.
“Probably I agree with you, I would not be as calm and confident and in control of my emotions because I had sometimes problems not in relation to results. As you know I did not have many bad runs of results.
“I reacted previously in a much more emotional way and instead of helping myself and the ones around me. I was even creating a kind of conflict situation. So maybe age and experience makes you realise that people who are more experienced, we are better equipped to cope with negative moments. I am calm, in control of my emotions. My nature does not change. I lose and of course I am not happy. But maturity helps.”
Mourinho stated that “one of his colleagues” went too far with his criticisms straight after a game and claimed there would have been a furore if he had done soemthing similar.
Hard to imagine Mourinho was not referring to Thomas Tuchel’s condemnation of Callum Hudson-Odoi’s “attitude” when the Chelsea boss substituted him after bringing him on at half-time.
Mourinho said: “This weekend I think one of my colleagues went a bit too far in his words
“But that’s another story, because it’s not
Jose Mourinho.”
TOTTENHAM:
Hart, Doherty, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies, Winks, Sissoko, Lucas, Alli, Bale, Vinicius. REFEREE: Matej Jug (Slovenia)
TV: BT Sport
the knockout stages of a European competition saw Gladbach beat City 4-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1978/79 UEFA Cup. It has been 43 years since Borussia were in the knockout stages of the European Cup/ Champ League. They lost 4-2 in the semis of the 1977/78 European Cup against Liverpool.
PEP GUARDIOLA insists he isn’t hung up on winning the Champions League despite a decade of pain.
And the Manchester City boss reckons club football’s biggest prize is no more special than any of the other three trophies he wants to get his hands on this season.
Guardiola has endured almost 10 years of frustration in Europe since last winning the Champions League as a boss.
That was in 2011 when he led Barcelona to a stunning triumph over Manchester United at Wembley.
Since then he has failed to reach another final – let alone
FRUSTRATION It has been ages since Guardiola got his hands on the trophy (right)
win one – and has not led City past the quarter-final stage since taking charge at the Etihad in 2016.
City have suffered humbling defeats to Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon (below, Raheem Sterling after Lyon defeat) in the knockout stage to leave Guardiola struggling to get the monkey off his back.
With some of Europe’s biggest sides struggling to find their best form and City flying high at the top of the Premier League following a record 18 wins on the spin in all competitions, this could be Guardiola’s best chance to end his hoodoo.
But when asked if the competition was special, Guardiola, whose side face Borussia Monchengladbach in a last-16, first leg clash in Budapest tonight due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, said: “Right now, today, no. It’s just a football game.
“We play in a lot of competitions. We played just two days ago, travelled and now we have a long trip, so we’ll talk a bit about Monchengladbach and then play the game – that’s all.
“We are going to try to win with the players we have. We’ll prepare like we have done in the last games.
“Nothing special. Try to win and get a good result and then face West Ham on Saturday. It’s the same process, think about the next one. One step at a time, one game.”
Guardiola admits he is not one for dwelling on the past, and who can blame him?
Last summer’s humiliating defeat to Lyon in Lisbon was probably the hardest one of all for him to take but
Guardiola reckons the same desire is there to keep going in pursuit of City’s Holy Grail.
He added: “We played better [than Lyon]. We lost, but we played better, so we’ll try to play better and win this game.
“If you believe everything is under control, you cannot do it. We are the same team, with the same process.
“Against Tottenham and Lyon, we were better, but lost. We have to play good but the desire is there to do what we have to do to beat them.
“And after that we see in the second leg and then on to the quarters if we are good enough. No more expectations than that. It’s just this game.”
IT WAS a wonder goal to win a woeful match.
Typical Olivier Giroud, the veteran striker who is just unstoppable in the Champions League.
This time Giroud, 34, scored with a sensational overhead kick to give Chelsea a huge chance to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2014. He has scored 11 goals this season, six in the Champions League and yet none have been as important, painful or spectacular.
Painful because Giroud was made to wait nearly three minutes while German referee Felix Brych and the VAR checked it for the smallest detail.
Yet no Chelsea fan will be complaining about the VAR after this victory because, even though the game was for so long such a boring affair, it was video technology which overturned a linesman’s flag. Boss Thomas Tuchel was brought in to Stamford Bridge for the big occasion and this time he outwitted the tactical past master in Diego Simeone who set up to defend but was ultimately undone. Atletico would not have been worried about taking a goalless draw back to London even though this was their home tie in Bucharest of coronavirus travel restrictions.
But when something goes wrong in the masterplan Simeone does not have an answer, especially when his side have been so badly hit by injuries.
Chelsea will have to mastermind the second leg without Mason Mount (left) and Jorginho who were booked and are suspended for the return in three weeks’ tie.
But they should not be intimidated because they were the better side and deserved their victory on a big night for Tuchel (right) and Giroud.
It did start badly though as Mount was booked within the first minute for a trip on Joao Felix as the Atletico forward threatened to run through on goal.
It nearly got even worse for Chelsea when keeper Edouard Mendy miscontrolled a back pass and was lucky it did not gift-wrap a chance for Felix.
Tuchel had given Callum Hudson-Odoi a harsh lesson at Southampton on Saturday, subbecause