Mourinho: "Champions League is the Special One"

Jose Mourinho gave an interview to the British TV 'Sky Sports' and said that "the Champions League is the Special One". Real Madrid coach went through his entire career in the competition and stated that "the Champions League title won with Inter Milan was the best moment of my career". It was the first of the Italian team in 40 years and Mourinho admitted that "it was a special moment for the president Moratti and for a group of players who, by age, only had that opportunity to win the Champions League. We really enjoyed it", said Mourinho.

Jose Mourinho

"The day after the elimination in the Champions League against Bayern Munich was a bad day managing Real Madrid but you can not mourn for a week. But when you stop to think about it, a semifinal defeat in a penalty shoot-out hurts", said Mourinho in the interview. Jose Mourinho also spoke of the current situation being experienced by Real Madrid in the Champions League after sorting. "Real Madrid wants the Tenth European Cup and I look for my third with a different team. That would be special to me. Calmly we will succeed" he said.

Real Madrid has gone on to the last-16 round as runner-up of the group. Maybe a problem because white team will have to face against a winner of other group and will play the second leg away from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. This situation does not worry Jose Mourinho.

First, because Mourinho has won two Champions League after classifying his teams as runners-up. In the 2003-04 season, Porto was behind Real Madrid in Group F. Portuguese team only lost one match (against Real Madrid, 1-3), drew two and won three. In the last-16 round, won the first leg against Manchester United 2-1, and managed a draw 1-1 in England. Olympique Lyon was their next opponent. Porto beat French team 2-0 at the Portuguese city and tie again (2-2) in France. In the semifinals, also played first at home against Deportivo La Coruña (0-0) and won the match played in Spain (0-1). In the final, Monaco was no match for the Mourinho's team, so Porto achieved the second European Cup of its history.

With Inter Milan, six years later, Mourinho repeated the way: from the second place in Group F, behind Barcelona (with only two wins, three draws and one defeat) to lift the trophy at the Bernabeu stadium. Like Porto, Inter faced the three knock-out rounds with field disadvantage. In the first, knocked Chelsea (2-1 in Milan, 0-1 in London). In the quarter-finals defeated CSKA Moscow (1-0 in the first leg, and 0-1 in the Russian field). And, in the semifinals against Barcelona, 3-1 at San Siro and 1-0 in the Camp Nou. Finally, 2-0 against Bayern Munchen in the final match, played in Madrid.

It was his last game with Inter before signing for Real Madrid. With Whites he has reached the semifinals in his first two seasons, winning the group stage in both. In this season, Mourinho's team will play the first knock-out round against an opponent to be determined, and that in the worst case could be Bayern Munchen (the tormentor last season) or Manchester United. Shakhtar and Juventus would be hard teams, but less complicated. The other options are Porto or PSG (group A) and Schalke or Arsenal (group B). Potential rivals, although they seem far from the level of the major candidates to lift the trophy in the final at Wembley, on 25 May 2013.