Mourinho’s Dier apology
Manager sorry for ‘hurtful’ 29th-minute substitution but quick-thinking ballboy praised as comeback seals Spurs’ Champions League progress
High-fiving ballboys, humiliating Eric Dier, despairing at soft goals and then overseeing a full-blooded comeback. One evening that felt like it encompassed the three years of a typical Jose Mourinho club cycle, and there is still so much more of this to come.
This was Mourinho back in the Champions League, experiencing the kind of drama for which his new club have developed a taste in this competition, with their oftenbewildered defence and an attacking force that gets them out of trouble time and again. Spurs have qualified for the knockout rounds in February with a spring in their step and seven goals in two games under a new manager who actually appears to be enjoying himself.
Mourinho knows how football works, but he also knows how television works, which is why he went over to the ballboy whose quick recycling of the spare ball led to the second Spurs goal and embraced the teenager as the camera followed him.
Later, when asked what he had said to his players at half-time, trailing 2-1 having been two goals behind, Mourinho advised the room to “wait a few months for the Amazon movie”, and you could hear the till ringing up dollar bills.
Things could not have started better for Mourinho. Even his ritual sacrifice of Eric Dier 29 minutes in did not spoil the day, with Mourinho offering an earnest apology to the player after the match and suggesting it was just him undoing an honest tactical mistake.
When his number was illuminated, the England international charged manfully towards the touchline, as if to signal his acquiescence in this personal misfortune.
Mourinho sent on Christian Eriksen to add a greater degree of creativity to his midfield. This turned into a fine performance for the Dane, whose passing gave Spurs a new dimension and finished the game by floating a free-kick on to the head of Harry Kane for his second goal of the night.
That made it 23 goals in as many games for club and country for the centre-forward this season, and he is not the only one who seems to be responding to the new regime.
Dele Alli scored the first goal and was the recipient of half a lap of honour when he came off late in the game. He had created the third for Serge Aurier, and looked as sharp in the second half as he had been against West Ham.
Mourinho has been eager to make as many excuses as possible for his team in the past five days, blaming their fluctuating performances on everything from the schedule of games after an international week to the emotional impact of Mauricio Pochettino’s departure.
On Saturday it had been the last 30 minutes at the London Stadium which were the problem, while on this evening it had been the first half when things had gone wrong.
A Mourinho team fell two goals behind in the Champions League for the first time since 2002, and his second appearance in the competition as a new Porto manager against Real Madrid. In the other technical area was the Portuguese coach Pedro Martins, once of Rio Ave, where Mourinho’s father Jose Felix also managed and his young son had himself learnt the art of being a quick-thinking ballboy.
Olympiacos seized on two great opportunities, the first when Youssef El Arabi dropped a shoulder and went past Harry Winks before sweeping a low left-foot shot past Paulo Gazzaniga’s right hand. Then again when a low corner eluded four Spurs defenders and tall centre-half Ruben Semedo stroked it in from close range.
Off came Dier, with Mourinho later consoling him that it helped that such a fate had to befall an “intelligent boy” who could understand why this was being inflicted upon him. On came Eriksen into what Mourinho referred to as “the open triangle” of his midfield.
Spurs were gifted a goal in time added on at the end of the first half when Yassine Meriah completely missed a clearance and Alli was given a simple chance to score.
The equaliser came thanks to the ballboy’s quick thinking in recycling the spare in the multi-ball system to give Aurier a chance to take the throw-in immediately. Lucas Moura was off down the right wing and, looking up, saw Kane delaying his run and pointing to where he wanted the ball delivered. Kane dispatched the cutback first time.
Mourinho praised the ballboy, whom he had unsuccessfully tried to track down to ask him to join the team in the changing room afterwards, by remembering his own teenage days as a ballboy in the Portuguese second tier.
“He understands the game,” Mourinho reflected on the unnamed ballboy. “He reads the game, he’s not there just to look at the stands, the lights or the stars.
“I was,” he added, in case there was any doubt, “between 10 years old and 15-16, a very good ballboy.”
Alli’s cross after 73 minutes was crisply struck from the right by Aurier for the third. Eriksen’s freekick was headed in by Kane for the fourth and, on the touchline, Mourinho leapt into the embrace of his new assistants as if none of this had ever been in doubt. Later he said that he could see the “self-esteem” of the team was not as it should be and that he hoped the two victories in four days would rid some of the “ghosts” haunting his new players, with himself the chief exorcist.