VS
JOSE RUFFLES REDS OVER YELLOW PERIL
Jose Mourinho demonstrated yet again that the art of
playing mind games with the opposition is still one of his greatest
skills by claiming Liverpool will do all they can to get top scorer
Didier Drogba booked in Wednesday's Champions League semi-final at
Stamford Bridge. Drogba is a yellow card away from a suspension
that will rule him out of the return leg at Anfield and Mourinho
fears the worst. Yet the Portuguese coach was not content to merely
voice his concerns over Liverpool's potential treatment of his
31-goal Ivorian striker, he also hinted the Merseysiders were not
as big as Chelsea because they had concentrated solely on the
Champions League.
The Chelsea coach is clearly on a roll after Sunday's boast that
new rules in the game prevented penalties being awarded against
Manchester United at Old Trafford. Mourinho delivered that comment
after the Blues' goalless draw at Newcastle left them three points
adrift of United in the race for the Barclays Premiership and were
clearly designed to heap pressure on officials during the climax to
an enthralling season. But Mourinho is already preparing the
groundwork for two cataclysmic semi-final games against the team
that he still maintains beat them at the same stage of the
competition two years ago without scoring a goal.
But while he insists that 'revenge' is not on his mind, he was
quick to point out that Liverpool must be favourites. Joe Cole and
Lassana Diarra, like Drogba, are just one booking away from missing
the second leg and Mourinho believes Rafa Benitez's side will make
the most of it - especially where Drogba is concerned.
Mourinho declared: "The fact is they don't have players on yellow
cards. They had an easy group in the Champions League and had a
chance to 'clean' cards. "For example Dirk Kuyt getting a card in
the last minute against PSV was because he didn't want to play in
the second game to be clean for the rest of the competition. "We
have Essien suspended and a lot of players with two yellow cards
and it would not surprise me if they chase Drogba for 90 minutes to
try and get him suspended for the second game.
Will Drogba get booked?
"So even on that they are on a different level than us. They have
more conditions than us, but we will see who wins. Our intention is
to play the game and try to win." But Benitez brushed aside
Mourinho's claims. Benitez, who maintained that "I do not like
playing these mind games", still managed the perfect put-down by
saying: "It had not crossed my mind, but maybe it has Mourinho's
because that is what Chelsea did two seasons ago to Xabi
Alonso."
In the semi-final of 2005, Eidur Gudjohnsen was accused by
Liverpool of diving to get Alonso booked, thus ruling him out of
the second match at Anfield which Liverpool won 1-0 to go into the
Istanbul final. Benitez said: "Maybe that is what Jose did to
Alonso. But if that was a message to the referee (Markus Merk) then
I can say that if it is a yellow card, that is what it should be.
If it is red, then also that is what it should be.
"I have confidence in Markus Merk, he is a very good referee and I
am happy with the referees at this level." Benitez also responded
to Mourinho's persistent complaining about his injury worries. The
Spaniard said: "I am learning many things I didn't know. That
Chelsea have injury problems, but so do we. "That they are tired
and we are playing less important games. They have spent a lot of
money over the last few years and they have a big squad.
"I also hear that he says Chelsea have got 60 more points than us
over the last three years. Well to do that they have spent big, how
much has each point cost them?" Benitez, though, tried to get back
to the game, saying: "We are confident, we have beaten them before
and in important cup ties. "We feel we can do that again. We need
to score and to keep a clean sheet, and we are confident that we
can do that. If we do score at Stamford Bridge, it will give us a
much better chance at Anfield, exactly like last time."
