Chelsea gaffet Jose Mourinho has revealed that mounted up the
pressure on his players ahead of their Champions League meeting with Steaua
Bucharest in an effort to force them into maturity, the Daily
Telegraph has reported.
The Blues recorded a 4-0 win in Romania, thanks to an own goal,
a Ramires double and a late Frank Lampard effort, having lost against the same
opposition last season in the Europa League - although Chelsea, then under
interim manager Rafael Benitez, did win the second-leg en route to triumphing
in the competition.
However, Mourinho does not want to be competing in the Europa
League, and used the prospect of the tournament as a motivating factor after
Chelsea suffered defeat to Basel in their first Champions League outing. “I
keep saying I don’t want to play Europa League, Mourinho revealed. “I
put that pressure on them because we have to do everything we can to keep
Chelsea playing in the Champions League because the Champions League is our
competition.
“It’s the way they can grow up faster, to be faced with that
pressure,” Mourinho added. “If I tell them because it’s a new team, I’m
a new manager, a new style of football, then no problem we can finish 20 points
behind in the Premier League and no one will care, or go into the Europa League
because that’s fine for us, they won’t grow up.
“Sometimes you need big challenges, bigger than your
conditions to succeed. They coped very well, so I’m happy, and we played very
good football and were beautiful in attacking areas at times.”
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