Mourinho Upbeat Despite Madrid Loss

Mourinho Upbeat Despite Madrid Loss

Jose Mourinho has exuded confidence despite his Chelsea side losing to his former club Real Madrid by a considerable margin in the final of the International Champions Cup being played in the United States.

Chelsea had a perfect record of wins in the pre-season campaign, until Thursday’s defeat in the hands of Madrid. Mourinho will be delighted with the form shown by his side so far in the campaign, which saw his side overcome elite European teams like AC Milan and Inter Milan in the same competition. The Chelsea supporters have been excited about Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge, and expect him to bring the glory days back at the club where he once won two consecutive Barclays Premier League titles. On the back of the excellent first stint at the club, Russian owner Roman Abramovich had no hesitation in bringing ‘The Special One’ back to London after several managers could not settle into the job.

It was no secret that Abramovich had always dreamt of winning the UEFA Champions League, and Chelsea’s poor performance in Mourinho’s last year in his first stint lead to his dismissal. However, then manager Roberto Di Matteo fulfilled Abramovich’s wishes by winning the Champions League in 2012. This year saw the Blues again victorious, but this time in the UEFA Europa League after a poor showing in the Champions League groups stage. This meant Abramovich had won both European crowns, and now would invest heavily to try and reconquer the Premier League.

Mourinho had already been involved in controversy with Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo, when he made comments suggesting the real Ronaldo had already retired. This added spice to the final of the Champions Cup, and the scoreline of 3-1 to Madrid was not how Mourinho planned the game. Adding to the irony, two of the three goals by the Whites came from Ronaldo, one from an impressive long range free kick; the other from a darting header to Isco’s cross.

According to the Metro, Mourinho is not affected by the defeat, and is adamant that the side must learn from their mistakes and put them right in the upcoming season.

Mourinho said, “For me, it’s perfect we made mistakes so that we have them to work on.”

“As I said last week, we had five victories in pre-season and zero points. Now we have five victories and one defeat, we still have zero points, it’s not a drama.”

“They play in La Liga, we play in the Premier League, if we meet them in the Champions League and lose it’s a different story but a summer tournament is a summer tournament.

“I came here to analyse my team, I’m so happy with the mistakes we made and I’m happy with the good things we did.”

So onwards and upwards is clearly the manager’s message.