Mourinho: I always beat Benfica as Porto were much better | OneFootball

On the eve of the duel with Benfica in Istanbul (Wednesday, at 20:00), for the first leg of the Champions League regular phase play-off, José Mourinho was questioned about his very favorable record against the Eagles, but refused to consider that this gives him a psychological advantage.

In a press conference, he was reminded that, in nine confrontations with Benfica - one for União de Leiria, six for FC Porto and two for Manchester United - he achieved six victories and suffered only one defeat, this one verified after extra time while serving the dragons, in the final of the Portugal Cup of 2003/04.

Mourinho downplayed the importance of these results for the meeting with Benfica, attributing them mainly to the quality of the teams he was leading and the moment that the opponent itself was going through at those times.

"I always beat Benfica because my FC Porto was much better than Benfica, Manchester United too, my União de Leiria, perhaps, was also better than Benfica, but I find no relation in these numbers. Benfica today is a top team, Champions, of status, with experienced players... Only the press remembers these things, I think nobody in Benfica remembers these things. With Feyenoord it was the same thing, they said that I always won and these are just coincidences, I see no advantage in this", he pointed out, referring to the previous Champions pre-elimination, in which he eliminated the Dutch.

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