Jose Mourinho has given Chelsea a vote of no confidence ahead of their semi-final clash against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League and doesn’t expect to face his former club in the final if his side beat Bayern Munich in the other side of the draw. The Portuguese manager said:
“It could be Bayern or Barcelona, I just don’t think it will be Real Madrid v Chelsea and we know why. “Barcelona aren’t the favourites, they are super-favourites.”
Of course Barcelona are the fancied side in the tie, everyone knows that, but only a fool wouldn’t be able to see what Mourinho was really saying here and the mind games he is playing.
The Real Madrid boss has often complained of the favourable refereeing decisions that Barcelona seem to get both domestically and in Europe, with Tom Henning Ovrebo’s performance when Chelsea played Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in 2009 being the most ridiculous performance from a referee that I’ve seen.
Chelsea and Mourinho aren’t the only ones that have complained about this as Zlatan Ibrahimovic also complained about the decisions of the officials when AC Milan played Barca in the last round. Also, our London rivals Arsenal have also believes they’ve found themselves on the end of some questionable decisions when they’ve met the current Champions League holders in previous seasons.
By highlighting this, and with Chelsea’s history against Barcelona, the officials will be under the microscope and it’s clever mind games by Mourinho, who wants to put as much pressure as possible on his main threat in the competition. I’m not expecting Chelsea to beat Barcelona, all I want is a fair game and do not want to experience anything like the Ovrebo game again.
Do you think underdogs Chelsea can negotiate their way past Barca/UEFA?
