Jose Mourinho has opened up on Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Liverpool in 2013/14, a result which damaged the latter’s hopes of winning the Premier League title.
Liverpool had looked on course to win a first top-flight crown in 24 years after an 11-game winning run during the Premier League run-in, but the Reds’ hopes suffered a fatal blow after losing at home to Mourinho’s Chelsea.
Steven Gerrard’s slip allowed Demba Ba to open the scoring, before Willian sealed the win on the counter-attack late on.
Chelsea’s defensive approach nullified the threat of Liverpool, and Mourinho celebrated the win wildly despite the Blues’ being out of the title race. The 60-year-old has now opened up on the background behind his celebrations after beating Brendan Rodgers’ side.
“Nothing to do with Brendan (Rodgers). Brendan was a young guy that came to work in youth football and, like I always do, I try to help these guys and bring them to sessions with me,” Mourinho reflected to the Obi One podcast.
“When it’s the national team breaks and the majority of the players go way, I let him work with me on the pitch. We always had a great relationship. We used to call Brendan the Special Two!
“What happened was we were in the Champions League semi-final. We drew 0-0 in Madrid with Atletico Madrid and we had at home the second leg. For us the game (with Liverpool) meant nothing, because we were going to finish second of third. We couldn’t reach the title, the fight was Liverpool needs to win that match to be champions.
“I wanted to play the game on Friday night or on Saturday. Because, for us, for Chelsea, for England, the game was a Champions League semi-final. They didn’t do that for us. The Premier League didn’t do it. We were crying, we were begging, they were saying it’s because of the audience and because of Sky.
“We were saying, for us, the Champions League is the thing. I cannot go and play in Liverpool with the u-18s. You are not allowed and it wouldn’t be fair to Manchester City if we go there with the second team. We wanted to do things in the right way and we wanted to play on the Friday night, or Saturday 12 o’clock. They didn’t give us that.
“So, when we go there, I go there to destroy their party. We went there like we were playing for the title, and we put everything in to try and win it. Of course, I gave a little bit of rest to one or two guys, I played young (Tomas) Kalas, and he had a fantastic game on Luis Suarez.
“We were going there on the bus and the guys outside were selling shirts and flags with ‘Liverpool champions’ on. You cannot do that with Chelsea. You have to keep the merchandise in a box. So we go there to destroy their title, which we did. We did a fantastic match there.
“Of course, Stevie G (Gerrard) is the last who deserved that to happen, but that’s life, that’s football. We played so, so well, and we won. To be honest, I even felt sorry for Brendan because I’m always supporting my friends, but on match day friends stay at home.”
