TIME TO PUT EUROPE FIRST, SAYS MOURINHO
Two-time Champions League winner Mourinho insists leading clubs south of the border are not helped in Europe
JOSE MOURINHO has won the Champions League twice — with Porto and Inter Milan — and, as Europe’s premier club competition returns tonight, the Manchester United manager sat down with Sportsmail.
He explains why just three clubs in Europe can even dream of winning consecutive Champions Leagues and takes aim at the Premier League over a ‘lack of protection’ for English clubs.
Take me back to your first Champions League experience with Porto... MY first match in the Champions League we played against Real Madrid — in Madrid. Real Madrid were in the second group phase that year (2002) and I’d come in January. Porto came through the other group with another manager (Octavio Machado), who was sacked. I came into that Champions League in February and I still got the last few matches of that group.
I was at Uniao de Leiria before Porto. In Leiria, I was playing in front of 5,000 and then it is Porto... I play a match in the Portuguese league and then three days later... the Bernabeu (Porto lost 1-0). Quite the change!
What stands out as your favourite memory? THE victory with Inter (2-0 over Bayern Munich in 2010), that final. Why was that more special than the Porto win in 2004? BECAUSE with Porto, it was a team of young people, a team of people with many years in front of them. If I didn’t win that year, we probably would not have left (the club). After that victory I was leaving — everybody was leaving — but if we did not win that Champions League, we would have stayed at Porto a couple more years. And we would have then won it because we were a very good young team.
Inter was an old team, a team of people who wanted to do it for their whole career. There had been frustration after frustration. That final was the last chance for Materazzi, Toldo, Zanetti, Cordoba, Cambiasso. It was an old team. It was now or never. That really was a crazy journey. And the president (Massimo Moratti), he was president for years and years and never, never, never. Also for the fans, because Inter had not been European champions for over 50 years.
Everything put things into context. It was a dream that everyone was chasing. Probably not me because I won it before. But for all of them... it was a last chance to reach their dream.
How would Inter have picked themselves up had you not delivered that trophy then? IT WAS just the end of a generation. I think the club would chase and chase and chase until they got it because it was everyone’s dream. But for this group that was it.
The win for Porto acted as a springboard for your managerial career. Are there any managers in this year’s competition that could surprise us? I THINK it is very difficult to have a surprise in the Champions League. It is very difficult. How many surprises have there been in the last 10 years? How many? Inter was probably the last surprise, if you can call it that.
At the moment, there is a circle of powerful clubs and countries. It is very difficult to have a champion from outside of that circle. It would be a surprise for me if a surprise happened.
Would it be a surprise if an English club did it this year, given the demands of the Premier League? EXACTLY. I think the Premier League and the internal competitions create a very difficult situation for the clubs. Other countries, they care a lot about the Champions League. In this country, the Premier League will always come in front of the Champions League. The institutions that lead the competitions make it very, very clear.
I played semi-finals of the Champions League with an English club and had to play a crucial match in the Premier League two days before. They couldn’t give us one more day because it was more important to have that match for Sunday morning football than to give you a Saturday fixture and some rest. (Referring to the semi-final against Liverpool in 2007; Liverpool were given a Saturday match). Other countries play Fridays to rest, they play Thursdays to rest. They don’t play — to rest! They manage things in a way that the teams are really focused on the Champions League.
Here it is more difficult. The intensity of every match is the same. In England, you cannot rest players. If you rest players thinking about Europe then you lose the match in the Premier League.
In other countries, you rest players. I had situations in Portugal, in Spain, in Italy of resting the whole team. At Porto, we had a semi-final second leg and I rested 11 players — even the goalkeeper — the game before. In England it’s not possible. It is the most difficult internal competition. You need to always be on the top of your potential. The institutions do not give you that little protection which can be crucial — 24 hours more, 48 hours more to rest and prepare.
But the English teams are really good, really strong. Why can’t they do it? Liverpool did it a few years ago, United did it, Chelsea did it. So now and again there is an English club that can reach that incredible trophy.
Is it possible to win the Premier League and Champions League in the same season? POSSIBLE? Yes. But it is difficult. How did you manage to juggle the two competitions at Chelsea? YOU try to motivate the players. They get themselves motivated by the fact that you are aiming for two trophies. I always say that motivation makes miracles.
The best thing to fight against the accumulation of matches is happiness. If you are happy because you are winning matches then you don’t feel the fatigue during the season so deeply. But in reality, English football is more difficult.
How feasible is it that English clubs will ever get help with rest days, as in Spain and Germany? WELL now you have a Friday night fixture, so, if an English club is in a Champions League semi-final on a Tuesday, I would expect that they would be given the Friday fixture to have one more day to rest. But I don’t know because until now nobody has had that protection.
Would winning the Champions League in consecutive seasons be the best achievement in modernday football? NO. Anything can happen naturally, especially now with the clear dominance of some clubs from an economical and structural point of view. I wouldn’t be surprised if Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich managed to get the Champions League twice in a row. Because of their dominance in their leagues? Yeah.
Did Sir Alex Ferguson ever offer you any guidance when managing in the competition? NO — he was playing against me! (Mourinho laughs)
What traits do you think a manager needs to win the European Cup? THERE are many ways to win it. I won with Porto, I didn’t with Real Madrid, for example. Sometimes, I used to call it the competition of the details. The details make a difference. I lost two semi-finals on penalties. What did you do wrong not to win the competition? Some guy had an unlucky moment and missed a penalty.
I won with Porto by scoring a goal at Old Trafford in the last minute. Without that goal, we would be out. With Inter, we were almost out in the group phase. We scored at Dynamo Kiev in the 89th minute. If we didn’t score in the 89th minute then we are out at the group stage. Then we go through and win the competition... you need the details in your favour, especially when it goes to knockout.
Sometimes, the details are a referee decision. Sometimes, it is a crucial player who is injured for a key match or suspended. And you have a
couple of players not there for the most important match of the season. It is a competition of the details really, but there is no other way to win it than being a very good team.
That 89th minute goal with Inter... are those the moments in which you think it is your year? WELL that was not just 89! It was 86 and then 89. We needed to win and we are losing. We were losing 1-0, we equalised in the 86th minute and we are still out... and then score in minute 89. Then we’re through!
Yes, these are the kind of moments you think (it’s your year). But like with Chelsea, we scored late with Demba Ba to beat Paris Saint Germain with an away goal (in 2014). We won the quarter-final, but lost the semi-final. You never know. What I can say is that every moment in the Champions League is one you don’t forget — for good and for bad.
It is a competition with a special feeling that everyone wants to win. We are lucky.
Is there a difference in preparation for Champions League and Europa League games in terms of days off? YES, you are playing the next Sunday against a team — many times — that during that week was just training and waiting for you. Then you play Thursday night. You have a big chance of playing very far from England — because the group phase, especially, can give you a team from countries where the travelling is really long — and then a couple of days later you are playing a crucial match in the Premier League.
Obviously, the level of the teams is different because, normally, the Champions League has the best teams. But the reality is that in terms of thinking about the Premier League it is much more difficult, because I don’t think institutions are going to protect you, to give you a Monday fixture to rest 24 more hours.
Jose Mourinho is a Heineken ambassador