Arrogant? Zlatan and Jose are simply misunderstood, says Luiz
JOSE MOURINHO takes on Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Tuesday night’s Champions League clash between Chelsea and Paris SaintGermain in the battle of the biggest egos in football — but the man who knows them both, David Luiz, claims their images are far removed from how they portray themselves in public.
Luiz, who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012 but left in the summer for Paris SaintGermain for £50million, says he joined because Ibrahimovic was there and that the Swedish striker could be unstoppable against Chelsea at the Parc des Princes this week.
Chelsea knocked PSG out in the Champions League quarter-finals last year, despite PSG winning the first leg 3-1.
PSG went down 2-0 at Stamford Bridge with Ibrahimovic out injured but Luiz is backing his new team-mate to put that right this year.
‘There are two Zlatans: one the media portray and then the real one,’ said Luiz. ‘He was one of the big reasons that I chose to join Paris. When Chelsea played Paris he said to me during the game, you need to come and play with us next season. He is one of the best players in the world, and a great guy. Of course Mourinho knows him well from Inter and will have a plan to try and stop him, but when Zlatan is on form he is unstoppable.’
Luiz also says he will be happy to greet Mourinho, even though it was the Chelsea manager who sanctioned the sale of the Brazilian defender in the summer. ‘We have a mutual respect and I will shake his hand,’ he said. ‘I would have
liked to have met Chelsea in the final but it is exciting to be going back at this stage.’
Mourinho worked with Ibrahimovic for a season at Inter Milan before the Swede joined Barcelona in £57m move in 2009 — and he famously told Ibra that if he left, he would miss out on winning the Champions League with the Italian club. Inter, of course, knocked out Barca the following season on their way to victory but the Swede has stayed on friendly terms with the Chelsea manager, writing in his autobiography: ‘Mourinho would become a guy I was basically willing to die for. He lives and breathes football 24/7. I’ve never know a manager with the kind of knowledge he has about the opposition side. I felt increasingly that this guy gives everything for the team so I want to give everything for him.’
One man on whom Chelsea can rely on to contain Ibrahimovic is former St Etienne defender Kurt Zouma. The 20-year-old partly secured his move to Chelsea with a superb performance in October 2013, when he marked Ibrahimovic out of the match when St Etienne took on PSG at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.