THE FINAL THIRD

Jose Mourinho is at it again in the press and letting the world know what he thinks of Arsenal and the new look AC Milan. He is basically pissing off Wenger and putting a big smile on the face of AC Milan supporters. The funny thing is that you know everyone is listening.

José Mourinho does not believe Arsenal are capable of winning the Champions League this season.The Real Madrid coach, speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, said he thought only seven clubs have a chance of winning European football’s premier competition – and Arsène Wenger’s team were not among them.

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Auxerre goes through…

Spurs go through…

Yesterday Kljestan gave a short interview about his goal in the CL qualifier which was published by a few different media outlets (different articles based on the same interview) in Flemish media.

“…In his first European game the American acquisition to Anderlecht immediately made people notice him by scoring a goal. Sacha Kljestan has to replace fan favourite Jelle Van Damme, who left the club, and he didn’t miss his start.
Sacha Kljestan was very modest about his contribution to the goal. ‘I got the bal from Suarez and was completely open’, said the American left-sided midfielder. ‘It would’ve been harder to miss that goal than to score it. I put the ball exactly where I wanted it.’
Thanks to Kljestan Anderlecht made a dreamstart. ‘That early goal was important for the team. On a personal level it gave me a euphoric feeling. I straight away ran to the supporters, who were shouting ‘USA,USA’. They had also brought American flags and wore jerseys with my name on it. That was really satisfying. I now hope to bring them a lot more joy’, said Kljestan.
Jelle Van Damme’s replacement wants to make the fans forget about his predecessor. ‘Jelle Van Damme was a very important player for Anderlecht, which is what I myself want to become. I have to do my best and try to achieve that.’

(bad camerawork on Sacha’s goal)

This video showing Jose Mourinho crying with his players as he celebrated that Champions League title says a few things. The guy has heart and he truly believes in his “Siege” mentality. At all times he instills in his players the feeling that it is them against the world. It also shows that his players adore and respect him immensely. Check it out.

The Special One is at it again

Well he is at it again and this time he is definitely not holding any punches. Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho says the Champions League is bigger than the World Cup. I know it sounds a bit crazy but he does have a decent point.

Inter plays Bayern Munich in the final in Madrid on Saturday.
“This game is the most important in the world,” Mourinho said on Tuesday. “It is even bigger than the World Cup because the teams in it are at a higher level than national teams, who can’t buy the best players.

“If you hold it to be important, you have to transmit that to the players.”

Mourinho has led Inter to their first European Cup final since 1972, when they lost to Ajax. It is even longer since Inter last held the cup, in 1965.

After being eliminated in the first knockout round in the last two seasons, Inter ousted eventual English champion Chelsea, CSKA Moscow and defending European champion Barcelona to reach this year’s finale.

Following the second leg at Camp Nou, where Barcelona won 1-0, Inter was accused of playing overly negative football that lacked the flair of 2009 champion Barcelona. Mourinho vigorously defended his side.

“I think that this season I haven’t seen a match like the one between Inter and Barcelona at the San Siro,” Mourinho said. “I haven’t seen a team play the way we did.

“We attacked aggressively against the champion of Europe. We scored three goals against the champion of Europe.

“We won the tie in Barcelona, but everyone talks about Barcelona winning and says we parked the bus in front of the goal. We didn’t park the bus, we parked the airplane and we did it for two reasons. One, because we only had 10 men and two, because we beat them 3-1 at San Siro, not by parking the bus, or the boat or the airplane, but by smashing them at the San Siro.

“I haven’t seen anyone play the way we did against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea isn’t a small team, it is the champion of England and no one plays like that at Stamford Bridge. Only we have played two games of the level we did against Chelsea and against Barcelona.”

Inter and Munich will be missing important players. Inter is without midfielder Thiago Motta and Munich will line up without winger Franck Ribery, both of whom were sent off in the semifinals. “Motta’s absence is more important than that of Ribery for Munich,” Mourinho said. “He is a player who has played a Champions League final and would bring that experience with him. He gives our midfield balance and doesn’t give the ball away easily. It is a great shame that he isn’t playing and it only happened because a fellow player did not behave in the correct way.”

Both teams have concerns over flight plans to Spain, with the possibility that further volcanic ash from Iceland will cause havoc with flight schedules in the next few days.

Inter was due to fly to Madrid on Friday, but it may yet leave on Wednesday to avoid any possible ash disruption.

“The team has to travel tomorrow, but I would rather work here and travel the day before the match,” Mourinho said.

My phone was buzzing the other day when the Spuds (Spurs) beat Manchester City to cement a Champions League place for the first time since Noah took the Arc out for a spin.

Now… i’m not a hater, and i’ll congratulate Tottenham. The league table never lies. You deserve to go to Europe next season, and thoroughly amuse us Arsenal fans. Bit harsh? Not really, not with the abuse that i’ve received this week. I’ve had it all:

‘We’re the best team in England’

‘Player for player we’re better than you’

‘You had your first team out when you played us’

My personal favorite:

‘I genuinely think that we can win the Champions League’

The best thing, is that most of these text messages came from Tottenham ‘fans’ who I haven’t spoken to about football for the last 10 years, I thought they were rugby fans! They remind me of Tampa Bay Buccaneer fans in 2003. You couldn’t buy a seat at Raymond James Stadium. Tampa had won the Super Bowl in 2002, and everybody expected a repeat. As soon as the Bucs went back to their old selves, you could all of a sudden get tickets to the games! Over here, its called being a ‘fair weather’ fan. I call them plastic fans, because, as the old chant goes, ‘you only sing when you’re winning’!

Enjoy your moment, every dog has its day. I could go on about our depleted team for most of the season, the fact that Holland broke RVP then gave him back, but I won’t because I’m Arsenal, and that means I’m full of class. I look forward to see you crashing out against FK Ventspils of Latvia!