Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation

José Mourinho: Chelsea lost because we couldn’t cope with the pressure

This article is more than 9 years old

A frustrated José Mourinho admitted his players “could not cope with the pressure” as Chelsea were jettisoned from the Champions League on away goals by a Paris Saint-Germain team who had been forced to play for over 90 minutes with only 10 men.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s harsh dismissal just after the half-hour mark had appeared to thrust this tie in the hosts’ favour but, despite leading twice, they were pegged back by headed goals from the returning David Luiz and Thiago Silva. Mourinho suggested that David Luiz may merit retrospective punishment for an elbow flung at Diego Costa – whose own evening ended with an angry confrontation with the officials and the PSG substitute, Yohan Cabaye – but could offer no explanation for his team’s mentally fragile display.

“PSG deserved to win,” said Mourinho. “When a team cannot defend two corners, and concedes twice, that team doesn’t deserve to win. When a team cannot cope with the pressure of being with one player more playing at home, and the stadium doesn’t accept the team has to control the game and want them to go on and win it… we couldn’t cope with that pressure. For them it was easy: 10 men, defensive organisation, two lines of four, long balls for the counter-attack, waiting for free-kicks and corners. Mentally, for them, they had nothing to lose. They were experienced, they were good, and they deserved it.

José-Mourinho-Chelsea-Paris Saint-Germain
José Mourinho said: ‘The first feeling is we deserved to lose, analysis is the next step.’ Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

“Clearly some of my players couldn’t cope with that pressure. The individual performances were not good enough. When you concede twice from two corners, it’s about a lack of concentration, a lack of responsibility to cope with the markers and the space you have to control. So we deserved to be punished with this draw. Sorry, this defeat.”

He spoke only briefly with his crestfallen players in the dressing-room post-match and will spend the next 24 hours analysing why such fragility had reared. “I want to discuss why we lost in a calm way. I want to know what they felt on the pitch and try to draw conclusions. Our performance was not good enough. I told them it wasn’t the moment to speak with them about it all, but for me it was a surprise. And I’m disappointed. But the first feeling is we deserved to lose. Analysis is the next step.”

Ibrahimovic was dismissed by the referee, Björn Kuipers, after a clash with Oscar with the referee brandishing the red card instantly – he flashed seven yellows in a fractious contest – while Chelsea players converged upon him apparently outraged by the Swede’s challenge. “When the red card happened the worst thing was the Chelsea players,” said the striker. “I felt there were 11 babies around me.”

“I spoke with Zlatan after the game and he’s always honest with me,” said Mourinho. “He would tell me if it was a (justified) red card, and he was very disappointed. If he did nothing wrong, I hope they can minimise the mistake and let him play the quarter-final. But there was a clear penalty on Diego Costa – it is a waste of time and money to have officials by the side of the goal because normally they do nothing – and David Luiz’s elbow I didn’t see, I confess. Uefa gave him man of the match, though, and I can’t believe they would do that if someone had made ‘an aggression’ like that.

David Luiz celebrates at the end of the match as Chelsea's Diego Costa looks dejected.
David Luiz celebrates at the end of the match as Chelsea’s Diego Costa looks dejected. Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Reuters

“Perhaps they cannot give us the penalty to go and take it now, so maybe they can do what is fair and suspend David (retrospectively) and take Ibra into the quarter-finals, which maybe he deserves. But for us, no time to cry. We have a Premier League still to win. We must move forward.”

The PSG manager, Laurent Blanc, suggested this result would serve as “a reference point going forward” as they seek to establish themselves as an elite force in the Champions League. A third successive quarter-final now awaits. “We want to be one of Europe’s top clubs,” he said. “We want to sit at the top table, so I’m very happy with this result. As for the incidents in the game, matches at the highest level are full of pressure and tension. Both sides put pressure on the opposition, and Chelsea did their fair share of that.

“It had happened even before the match with their manager, exerting pressure on the referee. That’s part of the mind games, and all fair and good. But if you take out these elements of unsporting behaviour, I think my team were better than Chelsea in every area of the pitch.”

Most viewed

Most viewed