mourinho on chelsea, bayern and the super cup published: tuesday 27 august 2013, 12.09cet
the uefa super cup is uniquely missing from josé mourinho's collection and he spoke to uefa.com about his chelsea fc return and the challenge of fc bayern münchen on friday in prague.
by andy brassell from london
josé mourinho has won every club competition he has ever entered – except one.
while he has to his name league titles and all possible domestic cups in portugal, england, spain and italy, plus the uefa champions league and uefa cup, the uefa super cup is missing from his collection. in the 2003 edition his fc porto side lost to ac milan in monaco, and having helped both the dragões and fc internazionale milano to uefa champions league triumphs, he had departed each club before the august showdown with their fellow continental trophy-holders.
on friday he has the chance to put that right when he leads chelsea fc against fc bayern münchen in prague. reappointed by chelsea this summer, mourinho spoke to uefa.com about his return, the importance of the uefa super cup and the challenge of bayern.
uefa.com: how do you feel to be back at chelsea?
josé mourinho: i'm at the club where i want to be. i'm in the country where i want to be so i think that's a privilege because many times you prefer a club or a country but circumstances mean you do not get both so after my experience in different countries i think i couldn't be happier.
uefa.com: what does the uefa super cup mean to you?
mourinho: what it means to us, it's a trophy. normally super cups are the trophies where, you understand that, it's not the same as winning a competition where you play lots of matches. it's a one-match competition so in football terms it doesn't mean much but it's a cup with prestige, it's a cup that every club would like to add to their trophy room. so we have to try.
uefa.com: like yourself at inter three years ago, bayern did the treble last season …
mourinho: with bayern, what impresses me was always the difficulty of achieving a treble and only great teams with a great mentality, with fantastic football qualities – but not just football qualities – manage to do it. to keep that level and that ambition in all three competitions was fantastic, it was remarkable, it was unbelievable work by mr heynckes. of course i was impressed by the way they performed all of last season.
to play against the best team in the world in the last year, because they were amazing last year, is a big challenge for us and it is good for us to measure where we are in terms of playing against the best, because on that day we will know [our draw for] the group phase of the champions league and it's a big target for us to go through the group phase.
