news
Tue 24 Nov 2015
Jose Mourinho believes we have played
better and lost this season but welcomed the win in Israel for adding to
confidence and putting our Champions League group under our control.The Blues after going 1-0 up allowed Maccabi Tel Aviv, who had Tal Ben Haim sent off in the first half, back into the contest to a degree until we sprinted for the finish with three goals in the final 20 minutes, and getting the job done was not helped by the pitch in the new stadium in Haifa cutting up during the game…
‘The result is too nice to us, Maccabi did not deserve a 4-0 defeat,’ admitted Mourinho after the game.
‘They competed well in the second half with 10 men and resisted for a long time. They had a shot for goal when Begovic saved from Zahavi which was a great hand from our goalkeeper so the result was too much for them.
‘We played very well in the first half but the pitch didn’t help. Only that stopped us playing better and cost us more goals. It was difficult to finish some of the actions which were beautiful.
‘The second half for the first 15 to 20 minutes we slept, we were over confident and were waiting for the second goal to come. Only when we felt we were in danger did we have a good reaction.
‘There are no doubts about the victory and the three points but Maccabi deserved something more than they got.’
Not only does Mourinho believe the pitch contributed to John Terry going off injured, it also caused a Ramires injury 24 hours earlier…
‘I said in an interview before the match that such a beautiful stadium and such a fantastic public deserve a better surface because it was bad and dangerous. We tried to protect ourselves by only training a little bit on it but to my surprise Maccabi trained on it after us, plus there was the warm-up before the game, so the pitch was really bad.
‘ Ramires slid and had a muscular injury and John has an ankle problem that we don’t know yet the damage.
‘The score was 1-0 when John left the pitch and for that to happen, I know already that he is in trouble. My medical department is really good and John is a professional guy with a special desire to recover but to leave the pitch with the result 1-0, I don’t believe too much that he can play at Tottenham on Sunday.’
Mourinho had reason to celebrate the third goal of the game and he also spoke about an exchange with Diego Costa on the half-time whistle…
‘The Oscar goal for me was the one that I was really happy with because finally we had someone arriving in the box, attacking a cross and finishing a good combination because apart from that it was set pieces, even this game, that gave us goals.
‘With Diego I wanted him to do a certain movement that he didn’t and I was disappointed and reacted and he reacted too, but at half-time in the dressing room there were a few kisses and cuddles.’
Dynamo Kiev by winning in Porto made it very close between three teams for qualification to the next stage…
‘For the group I need a calculator,’ said Mourinho. ‘I know if we win we finish first and I know if we lose we are going to the Europa League, and with a draw I know it is complicated. I just have to think that we need to win our match.’
