THE UNPREDICTABLE MOURINHO Love him or hate him, say what you - TopicsExpress



          

THE UNPREDICTABLE MOURINHO Love him or hate him, say what you like about him - and plenty do - he can put his track record on the table to end any argument about how good he is. This will be Mourinhos fifth successive Champions League semi-final with Inter Milan, Real Madrid and now Chelsea. He still has the chance to become the first coach to win this tournament with three different clubs after success with Porto and Inter. And in this quarter-final second leg Mourinho got all his big calls first in adversity and then through necessity. When Eden Hazard, one of those Mourinho would have been counting on most, was an early casualty with a calf injury he threw on Schurrle, who responded with energy and the crucial breakthrough goal. And then, with 24 minutes to keep Chelsea in the Champions League, he introduced Ba ahead of Fernando Torres as replacement for Frank Lampard. Mourinhos reasoning, maybe even over and above Torress own recent struggles, was that the muscular, bustling and largely ignored Ba, who was born in a suburb of Paris, would give PSG a problem they never encountered in their domestic league. The ploy worked as a finish that made up in effectiveness what it lacked in elegance sent Mourinho down the touchline and Chelsea into the semi-final. One of Mourinhos other assets is that he is in charge of a Chelsea team that knows how to get the job done on nights like this. This was the sort of street-wisdom and nous that got them out of a couple of tight spots on the way to winning the Champions League in 2012 under Roberto Di Matteo. And Mourinho also has a spot of unfinished business with Chelsea. In among the success of his first spell were two Champions League semi-final defeats by Liverpool, the first in particular a source of pain after what he called Luis Garcias ghost goal in 2005. Chelsea may be regarded as outsiders in what looks certainly to be a high-quality last four but only a fool would write Mourinho off. PSG may have been without the talismanic Zlatan Ibrahimovic - and what a terrible disappointment £55m summer signing Edinson Cavani was - but Mourinho was without the suspended Ramires and the ineligible Nemanja Matic, both so crucial to his midfield. Mourinhos first famous run was part of a journey to Champions League glory with Porto. He will hope his Wednesday repeat will lead to a similar glorious finale.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 07:45:07 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015