Mourinho outwits Blanc in the end Amid the delirium at Stamford Bridge, as the stadium finally rose to another remarkable Champions League recovery, there was one distinctive display of composure. Although Jose Mourinho’s skip down the touchline recalled the raw emotion that propelled FC Porto to this trophy back in 2003-04, it was really all about the kind of ice-cold calculation that has kept him so competitive at this level for so long. He admitted as much afterwards; that the run after Demba Ba’s 86th-minute tie-clincher was “not to celebrate”. It was “to tell Fernando [Torres] and Demba the changes we had to do. Three minutes extra time playing the way we were playing was too risky.” It was typical of Mourinho: using the masquerade of supposedly unrestrained joy to deliberately deliver the final instructions that would secure the win. That was the thing about this impressive comeback. It didn’t come through a characteristic grandstand finale. This wasn’t Manchester United at their most raucous under Sir Alex Ferguson, or even the Chelsea of 2012 vs. Napoli. It was all so much more controlled and, while that made the match tense, it did have the same sense of inevitability. As late as the eventual winning goal came, Chelsea were never really properly panicked into forcing it. Jose Mourinho gatecrashes the Chelsea celebrations to get his tactics across.GettyImagesJose Mourinho gatecrashes the Chelsea celebrations to get his tactical message across. Similarly, although throwing all your strikers on may be the most standard last-gasp move, Mourinho claimed it was all part of the planning, if maybe not the plan. “We trained yesterday with the three different systems we used [in the game],” said the Portuguese. “The one at the start, the one without [Frank] Lampard, the one with two strikers.” John Terry backed his boss up: “We worked a lot all week on scenarios, 1-0, 2-0, 3-1. What do we do? Every scenario, we had a game plan.” Of course, there should be no overlooking the other side of all those scenarios. In stark contrast to the collective Champions League experience of both the Chelsea squad and their manager, Paris Saint-Germain had virtually none. Instead, this was a club looking to make that last necessary leap into the true elite, to finally reach a semifinal and to beat a truly significant opponent along the way. They failed. Worse, this entire second leg betrayed a fear and trepidation about seizing that opportunity, of a side not yet ready. It began with the atrociously naive marking that allowed Andre Schuerrle to hit the key opening goal, continued with Laurent Blanc’s conservative decisions to take off both Lucas Moura and Ezequiel Lavezzi -- to thereby invite more pressure -- and culminated in Edinson Cavani’s awful miss. “We didn’t fail tonight,” Blanc claimed afterwards. “It was Chelsea who played well.” It was also the PSG manager who handed them the initiative. This has been an enduring characteristic of Blanc’s career, going right back to his management of Bordeaux and at Euro 2012 with the French national team. There is a streak of conservatism in him that fundamentally limits his team’s chances. It was even evident in the first leg, despite that game’s final score of 3-1. PSG should have built on the momentum of Lavezzi’s opening goal, but immediately sat back, letting Chelsea back into the match. Mourinho’s side themselves then let PSG take charge through poor individual errors, but those are effective outliers. It was still arguable that the Portuguese won the tactical battle in Paris. It was undeniable in Stamford Bridge and Mourinho couldn’t resist a barb after the tie was won: “We did enough in the beginning of the second half to score before but we couldn’t and, after that, there was a bit of a contradiction about what they are and what they say yesterday. They played pure counter-attack. “The team that decide to defend was punished, and the team that gave everything with their hearts deserve to go to the semis.” Had Blanc been a bit braver, PSG could have done enough. Of course, had Cavani taken his second half chance -- instead of blazing over -- from Yohan Cabaye’s divine pass, they would have done enough. - Brewin: Three Things: Chelsea vs. PSG - Report: Ba heroics push Chelsea into the last four That is one of the everlasting nuances of knockout competition: the manner in which pure luck can defy or define perceptions. It is something that cannot really be legislated for. It is, however, something you can seek to condition or to take advantage of. There can be no denying Mourinho does that better than most, and certainly better than Blanc. It is the reason he is now in his eighth Champions League semi-final from 10 campaigns, a remarkable record even given to the resources of the clubs he has managed. One common complaint about Mourinho is that he is too defensive and dull with the use of those resources, but that is to somewhat misunderstand his management. He is neither defensive nor attacking. He is the arch pragmatist, in the truest sense of the word, ready to get his team to play whatever way the situation demands. Most of the time, for all the theatrics that distract everyone else, he takes those decisions with a cool head. This 2-0 win essentially proved that. Afterwards, Mourinho effectively argued it further. He said the qualification was “nothing extraordinary,” before adding that “the players are not jumping in the dressing room.” They have, however, made a huge leap into the Champions League semifinal.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 09:55:23 +0000