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Roberto Mancini has claimed that Jose Mourinho only won the Champions League with Inter Milan because the Portuguese inherited a strong team he built.
Mourinho won the competition in 2010 as part of a Treble triumph, two years after succeeding the sacked Mancini at the San Siro.
Now, Galatasaray manager Mancini has stoked the flames ahead of his team’s meeting with Mourinho’s Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League by claiming the foundations of that great Inter team were put in place by him.
“Mourinho won the Champions League because he took a good team,” Mancini told the Evening Standard.
“He took a team that, like Manchester City, I had built. A team that had a strong mentality. When I went to Inter, they played very bad football and we changed this. To win a Champions League you should be lucky. [The] Champions League is a different competition but a strange one. Strange because you can win your group in October, November, December and, after maybe February everything can change.”
Meanwhile, Galatasaray’s Didier Drogba will be full of emotions when he strides out to face former club Chelsea today but Jose Mourinho knows the striker will be as clinical as ever on the field.
The Champions League last-16 first-leg clash in Istanbul is the first time the Ivorian has been on the pitch with the Blues since scoring the winning penalty when Chelsea lifted the trophy in May 2012.
The 35-year-old, who media reports say could return to the London club as striker coach, is Chelsea’s record European scorer with 34 goals in 69 games.
Including the spot kick in the Munich shootout and his header late in normal time, he has also bagged nine goals in nine domestic and European finals. His sizeable contribution to the club’s recent history is apparent from the number of posters of him still dotted around Stamford Bridge.
“It’s a strange feeling but, as we know him so well, we know that for him no friends during the game,” Chelsea boss Mourinho, who managed Drogba during his first spell at the club, told reporters.
“Before the game, big friends and big respect for a legend. After the game, the same. But, during the game, we have a job to do. He has his nature, he wants to score, he wants to win. I think it is a tie to go until the end. He deserves a reception here even better than mine, because he deserves much more than me. For Didier, double or three times better and bigger than I had.”
Drogba moved to Chelsea in 2004, Mourinho’s first season, and stayed after the Portuguese departed in 2007.
He left the club a few days after their Champions League triumph, saying he had achieved everything he wanted with Chelsea, before spending a few months playing in China and then moving on to Turkey.
Mourinho, who rejoined Chelsea in the close season, has already experienced playing against Drogba in the Champions League.
He was at Inter Milan four years ago when they took on Drogba and Chelsea and also held the reins at Real Madrid last year when the Spanish giants met Galatasaray.
Both times Mourinho was on the winning side.
Galatasaray manager Roberto Mancini, who is no stranger to Premier League side Chelsea after coaching Manchester City for four seasons before joining the Istanbul club last September, was not too optimistic about his side’s fate.
“I know Chelsea very well. For us it will be a very difficult game because Chelsea are used to playing these important games but we want to play a good game if it’s possible,” the Italian said.
“They have improved a lot in the last two months. We went through in a difficult group with Real Madrid and Juventus and I think it was a miracle. Now we are here and I don’t know if we can do another miracle but we want to try. In football never say never.”
As well as Drogba, Galatasaray will rely on Mourinho’s ex-Inter playmaker Wesley Sneijder as well as Selcuk Inan, whose penalty gave them 1-0 victory over Istanbul rivals Besiktas on Saturday.- Supersport.
Online Reporter