Chelsea FC manager Jos Mourinho believes he laid the foundation for Real Madrid to win the elusive La Decima, and admits he thought they would win it when he was on the Bernabaeu hotseat.
After winning the Champions league with Porto and Inter Milan in 2003 and 2010 respectively, Jos Mourinho was confident of making history, both individually and for Real Madrid, by winning his third and Real Madrid’s tenth Champions league title. But it wasn’t to be; although he guided them to three consecutive semifinals, his progress was always halted at the penultimate stage.
But The Special One thinks he played a key role in helping Los Blancos unlock the mental barrier after having failed to reach the quarterfinal for almost a decade.
“When I arrived at Real Madrid they hadn’t reached the quarter-finals for almost a decade and when we got Lyon in the last 16, the club was in panic,” the 52-year-old told UEFA.com.
“We went through that barrier and the club changed, the players changed. We thought we would win the competition. But in three consecutive years we reached the semi-finals, and for different reasons we didn’t manage to reach the final.”
The Portuguese revealed that when Real Madrid eventually won the La Decima a year after he had departed, he was happy for the Club and Carlo Ancelotti.
“The club deserved it totally, and I was happy,” he said.
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A third Champions League for Mourinho this season?
Jos Mourinho is regarded as one of the most tactical brains of the football fraternity, but the 55-year-old is facing a lot of criticism lately, as his current team Chelsea is finding it difficult to raise the bar after a poor start to the campaign. They are not favourites anymore to win the champions league, nonetheless, writing off a world class side with a world class manager is a mistake none of the top teams would make.