We'll need luck against Liverpool, says Mourinho
VALENCIA, Spain: Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho quickly tried to adopt the role of underdog ahead of the Champions League semi-finals after their stunning quarter-final victory at Valencia on Tuesday.
Ghanian midfielder Michael Essien scored a late winner to give Chelsea a 2-1 victory, and 3-2 aggregate win, and send them through to an anticipated match up against old foes Liverpool in two weeks time.
Even Mourinho is anticipating that the Merseyside club will be their opponents after winning 3-0 at PSV Eindhoven last week.
"Liverpool would have to be the favorites," said Mourinho when asked about how he felt about facing Liverpool again in a replay of the last time Chelsea were in the semifinals of Europe's top club competition two years ago.
"We are fighting for three titles but we have several yellow cards, we will be missing key players. Liverpool don't have the same problems," said Mourinho.
Among his men who will missing for the first leg of the semifinal at Stamford Bridge will be Essien.
Chelsea's hero on Tuesday was booked after just three minutes for a clumsy challenge on Valencia and former Liverpool striker Fernando Morientes, but never threw in the towel in disappointment at a mandatory one-match ban.
Inevitably questions were asked about whether getting Chelsea into the Champions League semi-finals would secure Mourinho's future at the London club.
There is widely believed to be a rift between him and Chelsea's billionaire Russian owner Ramon Abramovich and there has been considerable speculation he will leave Stamford Bridge in the summer.
"I would like to stay in England and ideally that would be at Chelsea but you cannot always get what you want in life. If I can't get it at Chelsea then I would like to continue coaching (in England)," said Mourinho.
Considering he was speaking in Spain his answer was an appropriately quixotic response.
It left no doubt that his future at Chelsea is far from certain even if he does lift the Champions League for the second time in four seasons, following on from his success at Porto in his native Portugal in 2004.
Reading between the lines, Mourinho's comments could be taken as a rebuff to Real Madrid, who are widely rumoured to want him to replace Fabio Capello, and an invitation to the English Football Association should Steve McClaren's position become untenable.
Further evidence that all is not well between Mourinho and his employer came when Chelsea press officer Simon Greenberg refused to take any questions from journalists about what Mourinho thought might be the reaction of Abramovich to the historic victory.
Valencia had not lost at home to an English side in a European competition for 40 years.
Aside for the usual fun and games of Mourinho trying to win psychological battles with his rivals and the speculation about his future, Mourinho paid considerable tribute to his players who pulled off the win.
"We had to change tactics at the break," said Mourinho, reflecting on the fact that they were a goal down through a Morientes strike after 32 minutes.
He made the decisive switch of bringing on England international Joe Cole for French defensive midfielder Lassana Diarra and swapping the formation around from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 in a bid to claw back the deficit.
"Joe Cole is a creative player. He was a better option to take on the Valencia defenders. I knew Essien could do a good job on the right wing so we managed to dominate the second half thanks to them.
"We deserved to win the game and every Chelsea fan should be proud."
"I can imagine what happened to Valencia. They were a goal up and then we got a goal back and then their defence got nervous," added Mourinho.
AFP
(China Daily 04/12/2007 page23)
