JOSE WE FEAR NOBODY
Mourinho: The knockout stages is when my stars will really start to perform
JOSE MOURINHO insists his Tottenham stars will start taking the Europa League seriously in the knockout stages.
And the Portuguese boss s a i d t h e P r e mi e r L e a g u e leaders will fear no team in the last 32, even if they fail to beat Royal Antwerp tonight and finish second in Group J.
He blasted the attitude of his players after l ast week’s 3- 3 draw against LASK, claiming some felt they were too big for the second- tier European competition.
Mourinho admitted t hey prefer to be involved in major P r e mi e r L e a g u e ga mes – although that will soon change.
“From my experience they wil l f ace t hi s c ompetition seriously with the progression to the knockout phase,” he said.
“But the overall feeling i s that in the group of six matches we’re going to qualify, we can lose one match or two, we can draw two or three, we are going to always qualify because we are a team with good potential for this group.
“And I think that puts the focus and the energy more in t h e P re mier L e a g u e t han Europa League and I think that’s what happened. Maybe there’s a sense of some of the players thinking I ’m playing this match but I should be p l a y i n g a g a i n s t Arsenal or Chelsea
“And i nst e a d of f a c i n g t h e g a me really professionally and saying this is my game, t hi s i s t h e g a m e I h a v e t o perform, I think there re is a little bit of relaxation.
“But in the end, no o drama b e cause we di d good enough to qualify and hopefully tomorrow we do well to win the game me and finish first.”
Spurs’ only defeat eat s i n c e t h e o p e n i n g game of the season n came at Antwerp in O c t o b e r w h e n f urious Mourinho made four half- time substitutions.
Both teams have qualif i ed and are playing to win the g r o up a nd av o i d those dropping out of the C Champions League in the first kno knockout stage in February. “Is that tha fundamental? I don’t think it is,” Mourinho added. “I don’t think we should be af afraid of playing any team in the next phase, but of c ourse normally t h e t eams t hat win t h e groups are t he best t eams so i f you can avoid them in the next draw I think it will be an adva advantage?” Mourinho ( left) reiterated his belief that it is wrong for Champions League failures to be parachuted into the Europa League after Christmas.
“It’s a point of principle,” he said. “No doubt the quality improves, the intensity improves and it’s a good thing for the competition.
“But from the sports point of view I think it ’s not fair a team that doesn’t succeed in one competition drops to another.”
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