UNITED DO JOB ON ITALIANS
UNITED STUN JUVE WITH ANOTHER LATE SHOW TO CLOSE IN ON KO STAGES
JOSE Mourinho concedes he should not have antagonised Juventus fans after United’s dramatic Champions League victory in Turin.
Juan Mata’s 86th-minute free-kick, and Alex Sandro’s own goal three minutes later, clinched a smashand-grab triumph for United to take them two points ahead of Valencia in Group H. Mourinho celebrated the triumph by striding onto the pitch and cupping his ear to the irate Juventus supporters.
Juve defender Leonardo Bonucci politely confronted Mourinho about his celebration and the Portuguese was repentant in his post-match press conference.
“I didn’t offend anyone at the end,” Mourinho said. “I just made a gesture that I wanted to hear them louder.
“I probably shouldn’t have done it, and with a cool head I wouldn’t have done it, but with my family insulted, including my Inter family, I reacted like this.”
United have now won on their last three trips to Juventus, having beaten the Bianconeri 3-2 in their 1999 Champions League semi-final and 3-0 in the second group phase in 2003.
Wednesday night’s 2-1 turnaround marked United’s first European Cup win with goals in the last five minutes since their victorious final against Bayern Munich in ‘99.
“Probably when Manchester United had heroics here [when they last played Juve] Manchester United was best team,” Mourinho added. “And they are a top team for many years now.
“They bought that player, they want to win everything, they can win everything and we are a team where many of the players didn’t play big matches like this in the Champions League.
“So is a difficult situation but is a fantastic victory for us. A victory that is not just about the points we lost at home, it is about the feeling of how well we played.
“And I think even if this game doesn’t end with victory I would have the same feeling that the team played really, really well from the first minute against – I repeat – a super team.”
Mourinho believes Marouane Fellaini revived United when he came on as substitute.
The Reds were behind when he sent the midfielder and Mata in the 79th minute and United became more threatening with the Belgian and Spaniard on.
Mata equalised with a classy freekick in the 86th minute and, three minutes later, Ashley Young’s inswinging set-piece caused chaos and culminated in an own goal from Alex Sandro.
Mourinho bemoaned the absence of Fellaini after the defeat to Juve two weeks ago and the 30-year-old returned after a month out to have a pivotal impact in Turin.
Mourinho said United came ‘alive’ with Fellaini in the team and felt the midfielder’s introduction forced Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri to alter his tactics.
“I think he was important to make the team alive again,” Mourinho said.
“Because when you concede the goal the team had a period of, by the psychological point of view, we went down a little bit and then Juventus was finally in control and was finally dangerous in the counter attack.
“And Fellaini gave us an option to be alive again by playing direct, by bringing the game again to the last third, and by being in last third he was giving us the chance to create situations like we did.
“We started winning first balls in the air, Massimiliano [Allegri] had to react, had to bring [Andrea] Barzagli, when he bring Barzagli, [Juan] Cuadrado goes out, and their counterattack is less dangerous because they are trying to control.
“And then we create, we create a Rashford shot I thought was a goal and the free-kick Mata scored beautifully, and that lateral free-kick I still don’t know who scored.
“But all I know is we just put the ball in the net.”
‘I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE IT AND WITH A COOL HEAD I WOULDN’T