Mourinho: "Us and the fans. Strong together"
Tuesday, 30 March 2010 18:04:30
[FOTO Tuesday, 30 March 2010 18:04:30]

APPIANO GENTILE - Apart from the traditional Russian army hat regaled to him by a Muscovite journalist at the start of his pre-match press conference, José Mourinho is expecting no other presents from CSKA Moscow. "It's very difficult to play against this kind of team," said the Inter coach in his pre-match briefing. "They ran a lot in their game against Manchester United in the group stage and I was very impressed with their physical condition. They are at the start of their championship now so they are fresh. The way they play, they are very compact. All their defenders and defensive midfielders are very tall, they have Krasic and Gonzalez who are dangerous on the counter-attack, and if these two players don't score they run back to defend. Krasic scores in almost every game for them."

Mourinho, then, is expecting a tough 180 minutes against the Russians: "Before the game against Chelsea I said you can never say after the first game if it's a great result or not. Looking at the last sixteen ties the only match that was only really decided after the first leg was Milan-Manchester. All the other games went to the end. We scored against Chelsea at the end, but who's to say they couldn't have scored twice in ten minutes? It will be the same tomorrow. I think everything will go down to the second game. CSKA are almost the same team that I played against in 2004/05, but with much more experience. They have a very high level of experience, so I don't consider us as favourites. It's a completely open two-legged clash. They are a quality team who deserve to be in the quarter-finals.

"Something grey about their path in the Champions League? If two of their players go to the antidoping (after last November's match against Manchester United) and they find a substance that is not permitted in the Champions League, then there's something grey."

Inter are in the last eight of Europe's top competition for the first time since 2006/07 and Mourinho believes the home crowd can give the Nerazzurri a huge advantage tomorrow night. "Inter are having a great Champions League. We have played eight games, including four against two of the best teams in the world: two against Barcelona, the world champions, and two against Chelsea who many thought were too strong for us. The victory over Chelsea was fantastic for us and the wins against Kazan and Kiev were important too. The team is playing at a Champions League level, we are in the quarter-finals and we want to get to the semi-finals. So do CSKA, who didn't have any easy group which included Manchester United, while in the last sixteen they faced a Spanish team that plays quality football. This is Inter's best Champions League in recent years and we want to do everything to reach the semi-finals. We had a great San Siro against Kazan and then against Chelsea, and I'm expecting the same tomorrow: a San Siro that gets behind the team in what will be a difficult match."

Mourinho was asked if his domestic press silence has been good or bad for him. "It's good for me because I go on the bench and this is important for me," he replied. "I have always said that a coach who doesn't go on the bench doesn't win games. I want to be close to my players. Not talking about the Italian championship allows me to go on the bench. So I don't want to risk? No, I don't want to risk."
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