Jose Mourinho infuriated by comparison to Pep Guardiola

Jose Mourinho lost his temper

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho found himself if a tough situation on Wednesday when a journalist pointed out the Portuguese’s unimpressive record against nemesis Pep Guardiola. Mourinho angrily contradicted the statistics, only to later admit that they could be correct.

At the pre-match press conference at Eden Arena, a visibly flustered Mourinho, whose team faces European champions Bayern Munich in the UEFA Super Cup was fed with bitter memories of his fiery clashes with Guardiola’s former Barcelona side. Mourinho has been bested by Guardiola many times with the former winning just three of 15 attempts with stints at Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

“Your statistics are wrong as a start,” he shot back. “Very wrong, very wrong but I don’t want to discuss that because it’s not important. I’ll just say it’s wrong. Go there and see what happened with Inter in the Champions League semi-final. The league records in Spain, the Copa del Rey in Spain, the Super Cup in Spain. You are very, very wrong. You are wrong but it’s not important. It’s not me against him, it’s club against club. That’s not important.”

The outburst prompted a hasty apology from the reporter, who was armed with UEFA’s statistical pack, which clearly acknowledges the clashes between the two managers, with Mourinho having won three times, Guardiola seven and had five matches drawn.

Mourinho has not seen his side keep a clean sheet against a team coached by the Spaniard, besides their first meeting, a 0-0 draw between Inter and Barcelona in the group stages of the 2009 Champions League.

“I just know that I won the Champions League semi-final with Inter [in 2010],” stated Mourinho. “I won the Spanish Cup final in Valencia [2011]. I won the Super Cup in Spain [in 2012]. I was champion in Spain [in 2011-12]. I won the match of the title in Barcelona with Real Madrid. So, I don’t know, maybe you are right and I am wrong but I don’t care. It’s not important for me.”

The confrontation set a bad tone for the evening, with Mourinho threatening to abandon the conference if the subject wasn’t changed.

While pointing to the emblem on his sports jacket, he said: “It’s white but it’s Chelsea. If you want questions about Chelsea I’m here until four o’clock. If you want questions about Real Madrid and Barcelona, I’m not here. It’s not about me and Pep. It’s about Chelsea and Bayern Munich.”

“It’s about a Super Cup where the European champions are playing the Europa League champions. Pep is not a European champion and I’m not the Europa League champion. We’re just coaching these teams. It’s not about us. It’s about Chelsea and Bayern.”