José Mourinho

Van de Chelsea-site

Mourinho relishes return to Barça

José Mourinho has reacted enthusiastically to the prospect of taking on the club that played an important part in his rise to becoming a Champions League winning manager.

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He announced prior to Friday morning’s first knockout stage draw that this was the one of five possible opponents he wanted, and he was not disappointed.

Soon after, Mourinho smiled: “I am very happy. Since I left Barcelona in 2000, I never went back again. I left Barcelona as assistant and I go back as European Champion and Chelsea manager so it is fantastic for me.

“It was my last step before I became a manager and I had the chance to be assistant to two great managers with different philosophies and different personalities. I had the chance to work with fantastic players - Ronaldo at 19, Figo at 22, Stoichkov at the end of his career, Guardiola, Rivaldo.

“My son was born in Barcelona so there is a bit of the blood speaking. He has a Spanish and a Portuguese passport. He is a little Catalan so there is big emotion to go there but when the game starts, goodbye! I love Barcelona and in every corner I have a friend but the reason why I was very pleased to play against them is they are a top football team.

“They want to win and they want to play football. Sometimes even at Champions League level there are teams who want to win but use a certain type of tactics and attitudes that are a bit different. Barcelona is a pure place to play football.

“They have great players and I can imagine it will be two great matches. We have the same risk of going out as Barcelona has. They can beat us, we can beat them. I don’t like the word fear in football, I don’t believe in fear. We don’t fear them and they don’t fear us. The same way as we have respect for their quality and no doubt they have respect for ours.”


Mourinho went on to point out one difference he could see between the current Barclays Premiership leaders and the team in first place in the Spanish top flight.

“Barcelona in their league is in an even better position than we are,” he reckons, “because they have no direct opponent. We are in a fight with Arsenal, Man U and Everton but Barcelona are alone. Real Madrid and Valencia are too far behind and Coruña are too poor this season.

“In the Spanish League they are in a comfortable situation. Maybe they can prepare their Champions League matches a different way, a bit like I was able to do last season with Porto.


“But as a football team, I don’t know if we are better than them but they are not better than us. There is no underdog in this tie. It is 50-50. Or maybe 51-49 for us,” he corrected.


In Mourinho’s final season coaching in Catalonia, Barcelona faced Chelsea in the Champions League for the first time. He remembers it well.

“It was two great games. We lost 3-1 in London and we beat them in extra-time in Barcelona. This time it is the opposite way, first game in Barcelona, the opposite one in London.

“Chelsea at that time was a very good Chelsea – a young Zola and a lot of good players around him. It was Vialli time when Chelsea got good results and won a few trophies.

“To be fair I think we were lucky in the first match because Chelsea were winning 3-0 at half-time, we got the goal later in the game and we didn’t deserve it. Chelsea would have won 3-0 and would be in the semi-final. But we scored, went to Barcelona with a better chance and we played a great game there. It was a big night for us.


“But I think Chelsea is strong now, especially mentally. We have self-belief and we think we can win against everybody. We are in a good moment now and I hope in February we can be at the same level of play.”


Prachtige loting.