Everything José Mourinho said ahead of Benfica v Real Madrid | OneFootball

The die is cast and José Mourinho previewed the match between Benfica and Real Madrid, counting for the eighth round of the Champions League. Present in the press conference room, the Special One spoke about the difficulties of the match, Davide Massa, and praised Álvaro Arbeloa. Check out everything that was said.

As the coach of Benfica, is it a special game? Looking at the game, what do you think might happen? Will the game break open many times? How do you view the teams? "It's hard to predict. I think that despite many people talking about football, there's one thing that remains undeniable and fantastic, the unpredictability of the game, you never know what might happen, it's hard to predict. You analyze the opponent, develop your own plan, but there is a large dose of unpredictability. What we can do is prepare the team as best as possible and play the game with respect for an opponent we know, but we also know who we are. We have to play the game with the only objective we have. We don't have to think about other results, only by winning can we see if they were favorable or not. The goal is to try everything to win even knowing who is on the other side."

Many years have passed since you left Real Madrid. After the games with Barcelona, you often asked why. There is an ongoing investigation in Spain about refereeing issues: "I'm not interested. I live my career day by day, I think about today and tomorrow. The past is the past."

The referee has already given you some setbacks... Are you still expecting someone else in the squad? "Squad? I never like to say that the door is closed because there is always that unpredictability while the market is open. If you ask me if the two players who joined are players with qualities to help, yes. They are two important players to help us be better. If you ask me if I'm desperate thinking that some player will leave, no. I'm calm. Referee? A few weeks ago I said that before games I never worry about who the referee is, I don't like to comment before because I like to think they will do their job. After the games, I talk about referees, in the last one I ended up not talking, but it was fantastic. I like to say it when I lose because many times you lose and the referees are good."

You mentioned inexperienced coaches managing big clubs. Does Arbeloa's youth catch your attention? "It's a quality I respect a lot, steering things in the direction that interests you. The question I was asked was if it was a surprise that Spaletti was managing Juventus, the answer was about that. The answer is, in defense of Spaletti, it doesn't surprise me that he manages Juve. What surprises me is when a coach without history manages a big club. In 2000, Benfica called a coach who hadn't managed anyone, that coach replied that he didn't want to be an assistant. He thought they wanted him to be an assistant. It happened to me. It was a big surprise. In Spain, you talked about Arbeloa. In Italy, about Chivu. They are my boys, they are my former players and special former players. Arbeloa is one of the players who, from a human and personal empathy point of view, is one of my favorites. He was one of the best men who played at Real. He was the last one I could pressure. You are very intelligent in the way you do your work. I just hope everything goes well and that he has a fantastic career."

Benfica cannot lose its identity considering the stars of Real Madrid: "Benfica has to play with the characteristics it has. If you ask me if I would like to play as we are going to play, I would say no. We have to play according to the qualities we have and not with the qualities we don't have. Not wanting to elaborate much, to win we have to score one more goal than the opponent. If we have to score, we have to play to score and we can't concede many. Repeat the game we played in Turin where we entered the area with the ball 34 times and didn't score a goal. The times we enter, we have to score."

Were you surprised that Xabi Alonso stayed for such a short time? "Xabi is another of my boys. I only have good memories, I played against Xabi and got emotional before and after the game. A great joy for what he did at Leverkusen and that he reached Real Madrid. What happened is something that doesn't interest me. In football, it's very difficult for something to surprise me. Anything can happen. I'm sure his career will be very happy because he showed the level he can reach."

Is staying out of the playoffs a failure? Does qualification affect the market? "I don't think it has anything to do with the market. Benfica did a market in the summer, now it tries to improve the team for the rest of the season with balance and it doesn't seem, I'm convinced it has nothing to do with it. The hypothetical non-qualification can be seen from different perspectives. I think the big problem of this phase is the initial defeat at home in a must-win game that would leave us 1 point away from qualifying. It goes through games that we ended up losing. The unfair defeat at home to Leverkusen marks the qualification."

Guardiola advised Xabi Alonso to bet on his ideas. What advice can you give to Arbeloa? "I immediately thought that everything will go well, which is what I want. Arbeloa can coach any club I want him to do well, I want the best for Real Madrid. Only tomorrow do I want things to go wrong for Real Madrid. Saying he's a phenomenon, I can't say... I didn't follow his trajectory with the youngsters with my own eyes. I can say there is a human dimension. I have no advice, he's happy, being a coach is a difficult mission, there are always many people who know more than you and talk about you every day, who criticize, there are influencers. It's very difficult. For people who have just started, it's important that they like this job. If tomorrow he tells me he likes it, I'm calm."

What do you say to a team? "The same thing I said with Juve. You can tell me it didn't work, but I think we were successful in the approach. When you have nothing to lose, you have to go all out. Either you kill or you die standing. That's what we're going to try tomorrow with balance. It's a team that punishes, these players take 3 steps and score 3 goals. They are people who punish. They are of such a high level that they are waiting for the mistake."

Did you talk to Arbeloa? Will it be a mental issue? "I didn't talk to Arbeloa. My phone number is very complex because the only one that is always there is the club's, the other only the family has it, the other changes, changes, changes... I lose contact with many people. A call is not necessary to wish him luck, he knows. He wants to beat Benfica and then he wants Benfica to always win. For us, it's simple. If we lose, we're out, if we win, we go to the locker room to wait to see if we qualify. We have to play with this in mind that we have to win."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.