CHELSEA MANAGER JOSE Mourinho criticised his team’s sloppy defending and lack of a cutting edge from his strikers after they went down 3-1 to Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League quarter-final, first leg last night.
The Premier League side recovered from the loss of an early Ezequiel Lavezzi goal to equalise courtesy of an Eden Hazard penalty just before the half-hour mark and the Belgian also struck the post before half-time.
However, PSG seized the initiative again in the second period and a David Luiz own goal put them back in front before Javier Pastore’s stoppage-time effort handed the Ligue 1 leaders a potentially decisive two-goal advantage heading into next Tuesday’s return at Stamford Bridge.
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“I think by the strategical point of view the team had great discipline, and the most difficult things to do in the game they did very well,” said Mourinho, who is looking to become the first coach to win the European Cup with three different clubs following previous triumphs with Porto and Inter Milan.
“They stopped (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic. (Edinson) Cavani was under control. The positional play from (Thiago) Motta and (Marco) Verratti in the centre of the pitch was completely under control.
“But we couldn’t transform the half-chances that we created into goals and on top of that we made defensive mistakes, individidual defensive mistakes. So we paid the price.”
The Portuguese also confirmed that his decision to select winger Andre Schuerrle in attack rather than Fernando Torres in the absence of the injured Samuel Eto’o reflected a lack of confidence in his misfiring strikers.
I’m not happy with my strikers’ performances, so I have to try things, and with Andre at least we know we have one more player to associate with the other players.
“But football is not just about that. It’s about scoring goals and getting in behind. And that is for strikers, real strikers.”
The opening goal came from a poor defensive header by Chelsea captain John Terry while David Luiz gave away the free-kick which led to his own goal and goalkeeper Petr Cech was beaten at his near post for Pastore’s third.
“In the first goal the ball goes to Lavezzi – control, half-volley, boom. It’s like this at this level – one chance, one goal,” admitted Mourinho.
“The game was under control and we had the chance to go 2-1 up at the end of the first half. But we didn’t score and then after that we scored in our own goal and after that the third goal, it was a joke. It was not a goal it was a joke.”
Madrid really do need to get to the final at least this year, a club of their stature should demand that at least. Fair enough they have 9 wins but six of them came between 1956-66 and the other three between 98-02 so outside of these two periods they have really failed for long periods in challenging in Europe.
Another nob jockey commenting on something he clearly knows nothing about… 11 shots to 2 on target clearly shows Madrid struggled. A better comment would have been for there injuries they did well end of topic
Lol hahaha your right next time. Great to see the irish media admitting real Madrid are the prestigious club they and not constantly telling us United and co are the best. Meaning league and club….. itv showed the champions league final and openly admitted that United fan base in Europe is 35% to Barcelona with 65% fan base in Europe the rest is mostly in Asian countries. We all know Asia has the weakest football nations
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Hoping they can win it this year, but they were getting carved apart tonight at times by Dortmund, don’t know how they kept a clean sheet in the end.
Hala Madrid, 10 is on its way.
Just to shut you up I hope to god Dortmund knock Madrid out
Madrid really do need to get to the final at least this year, a club of their stature should demand that at least. Fair enough they have 9 wins but six of them came between 1956-66 and the other three between 98-02 so outside of these two periods they have really failed for long periods in challenging in Europe.
Agreed Pat, for the money spent and the quality of players who have gone through the club the return has been very poor.
Awwwww Rupert, can a poster not proclaim their club on here?
Another nob jockey commenting on something he clearly knows nothing about… 11 shots to 2 on target clearly shows Madrid struggled. A better comment would have been for there injuries they did well end of topic
Hey Joe, at least I know how to click reply.
Lol hahaha your right next time. Great to see the irish media admitting real Madrid are the prestigious club they and not constantly telling us United and co are the best. Meaning league and club….. itv showed the champions league final and openly admitted that United fan base in Europe is 35% to Barcelona with 65% fan base in Europe the rest is mostly in Asian countries. We all know Asia has the weakest football nations
How can ya control a cross into the box and THEN finish ‘first time’ :/ .bit of a contradiction there.