Dear Jose, Would You Settle For Another 0-0? (Part
One)
There's a story doing the rounds that purportedly reveals how Rafa
Benitez outsmarted Jose Mourinho ahead of their last Champions
League semi-final meeting. Reprinted by The Sunday Times a few
weeks ago, it runs something like this:
Before the tie, back in April 2005, Benitez instructed Paco
Herrerd, his then assistant, to send his Chelski counterpart a
private message. "Let him know they are better than us. They've
proved themselves in the league and if they played five matches
they would win four. But also tell him they are going to win 1-0 in
the first game but we'll win 2-0 at Anfield," Benitez requested.
The missive was duly passed on via a mutual friend.
Jose, typically, couldn't resist responding. He predicted that
Liverpool would win 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, but his side would
reach the final by beating their hosts 2-0 at Anfield a week
later.
The exchange was supposed to be light-hearted, yet Benitez had
spotted - or believed he had spotted - the fatal flaw in Mourinho's
approach.
And let's just stop there for a moment.
Can you spot the flaw?
To give you a moment to don your Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, we
will divide this article and, to stop any peaking ahead at the
solution, continue it on a separate page...
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8750_2084210,00.html
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Dear Jose, Would You Settle For Another 0-0? (Part
Two)
...The 'flaw' was that Mourinho apparently intended to play safe at
Stamford Bridge and would seek to win the tie in the away
leg.
It's worth recalling just what an average side the Reds possessed
in 2005 compared to their blue opponents. Djimi Traore, for
instance, started both legs against the run-away Premiership
leaders. A scenario in which the tie was to become a one-match
decider suited Benitez perfectly - especially as it would be played
inside the cauldron of Anfield, a factor Mourinho had seemingly
overlooked.
True or not, the tale does fit with both managers' reputations:
Benitez as the master tactician, Mourinho as the cautious
minimalist prone to saying too much for his own good. And it
certainly may be true. After the dour 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge,
the Chelski manager described the scoreline as a "good result" for
his side. Ultimately, he was proved wrong, but only by the slimmest
of margins with Eidur Gudjohnsen shaving the outside of the post in
the final minute of the second leg. Had he scored then Chelski
would have progressed courtesy of the away goal that Liverpool
failed to register the previous week.
This year's tie is bound to be similarly tight. Perhaps it would be
better to refer to it as a 'grudge match' rather than a 'showdown'
as it's improbable that either meeting will be a free-spirited
affair with both sides standing toe-to-toe. Instead it will
probably resemble a wrestling match in which two grappling
heavyweights focus all their energy on stifling their
opponent.
So do not expect a classic, and, as his side remain underdogs,
Benitez will surely settle for another soporific stalemate at
Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. Naturally, he would prefer the
encouragement of an away goal, but the Spaniard will regard 0-0 as
a more favourable scoreline than 2-1 and instruct his side
accordingly. By, as in 2005, reducing the tie to a one-legged
showdown at Anfield, Chelski's perceived superiority will be
strictly negated.
Mourinho, for his part, is unlikely to alter his approach from 2005
either. The Portugeezer does not bother with self-rapprochement and
his acute sense of paranoia and victimisation ensures that he
continues to claim that his side were not knocked out two years ago
(he remains convinced that Luis Garcia's goal did not cross the
line). Elimination was the consequence of a travesty of justice
rather than his own misjudgement. As such, he may still regard the
prevention of an away goal as his side's priority on Wednesday. The
character of Chelski's quarter-final tie with Valencia would
support such an approach - the Premiership champions struggled at
Stamford Bridge but overwhelmed their opponents in Spain.
Fortunately, Benitez and Mourinho's relationship has deteriorated
markedly in the past two years. Otherwise, a repeat of 2005's
correspondence could have brokered collusion towards the 0-0
stalemate that both managers seemingly consider advantageous.
Pete Gill
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8750_2084214,00.html
Very likely scenario, I would say. 