Mourinho emotional as Benfica reach Champions League after Madrid win | OneFootball

With Benfica's qualification over Real Madrid in the last round of the Champions League, José Mourinho made clear the feeling and importance of having secured qualification with the Portuguese team. Having coached Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Inter Milan, Mourinho stated that he has a different feeling when representing Benfica.

“This means... it means a lot. I have been all over the world, in so many countries, playing so many games in the Champions League, proudly representing all my clubs, but Benfica is Benfica. Benfica is my country, my home is 20 minutes from here. These are the people of my country, this is my club. Doing this with Benfica means something extra,” he said.

“I’m talking about Benfica’s players who are not the best in the world, but they’re not the worst either. It’s for them that I speak, I would like a little more respect, especially for Benfica,” said Mourinho.

  See this photo on Instagram   A post shared by Sport Lisboa e Benfica (@slbenfica)

Changes in the table and substitutions

With all the matches in the round happening at the same time, the coach commented that he only received the news of the need to score one more goal after “locking up shop” with the changes in the team.

“We’re winning 3-2. We thought it was enough. I put players in to close the defense and secure the win. When I make the substitutions, someone comes to my ear and says: ‘We need one more goal.’ At that moment, I can’t do much more, but then we had that wide free kick in a good position. I told the big guy to go up and take a risk, and if we lost the ball and they tied 3-3, so be it,” the coach pointed out.

Mbappé’s effectiveness

Despite Real Madrid’s dominance of possession, the Merengues only reached Benfica’s goal a few times. Mourinho praised Kylian Mbappé’s talent, but said the team’s triumph was not due to luck.

“I think it was Mbappé who kept the game balanced, because he had two chances and scored two goals, that’s it. I told my players that we don’t fear the team, but we have to fear the players. That’s why these players cost so much money, because they’re different from the others. But my team was better than Real Madrid, totally deserved the win. I don’t think it was a lucky win. Maybe people will say ‘it was a goal in the last second, a goal by the goalkeeper’, but I don’t think it was a lucky win,” he commented.

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