Mourinho defends Turin actions; picks out Man Utd star for special praise

Jose Mourinho insisted he didn’t mean to cause offence with his actions at full-time against Juventus as he lauded one Manchester United star for his impact at the Allianz Stadium.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s magnificent volley had Juve on course for victory but it was the visitors who would land a stunning blow in a Champions League clash to cherish.

Juan Mata’s superb free-kick four minutes from time sent the visitors wild, but the best was yet to come as an Ashley Young free-kick was unwittingly bundled in at the back post by Juventus’ Alex Sandro to give United a last-gasp win.

The 2-1 victory is United’s latest memorable win in Turin and boosts their hopes of progressing from Group H to the knockout rounds.

Mourinho certainly lapped up the moment at the Allianz Stadium. A fortnight on from responding to inflammatory chants from the Juventus fans at Old Trafford by holding up three fingers, representing the treble he oversaw when manager at Inter Milan, he took to the pitch and cupped his ear at full-time.

The United boss has already detailed exactly what was special about United’s win, though his actions clearly upset the Juventus players.

“Well, do you remember what they did to me? Well, the sign I made is actually not an offence,” Mourinho said.

“This is something more… I just wanted to hear them making comments again or not. Yes, before I said I would not do it but then I did (react).”

You can see why Mourinho got caught up in things on a night where he piled the praise on substitute Marouane Fellaini for making “the team alive again”.

The imposing midfielder – so often Mourinho’s “go-to man” made his presence felt as the winner went in, with victory injecting new life into their Champions League campaign and providing a great lift ahead of Sunday’s derby clash at Manchester City.

“I think we played this season against Chelsea and Juventus away, the two best teams that we faced this season, and we played very well in both,” Mourinho said. “Very well in both.

“In here, lucky to win in the last minute. Against Chelsea, unlucky not to win in last minute, but we played very, very well and this is what we want.

“We want to play well, we want to go to every stadium and it doesn’t matter the team and we play.

“Then, if they are better than us, they win. If they have more potential than us, they win. If we make mistakes and pay for the mistakes, we lose.

“But I want the feeling that it doesn’t matter where we go, we go to compete and I think this is a feeling that also the Manchester United supporters around the world want to have – switch on the television and it doesn’t matter where we play, they know we are going to compete.

“We will lose matches. Today we could lose, but that feeling of ‘we go to play, we go to try to win’.”

 

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