UEFA Super Cup: Will Jose Mourinho finally break the duck?
He is considered by many as ‘arguably’ the most successful manager of his era. His ability to win trophies, by all means, has taken him up there with the best ever in the game.
With Jose Mourinho as the captain of your ship, one certain thing is trophies, plus other things which this article is not about.
From his time at FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid, back to Chelsea and now Manchester United one constant thing with Jose Mourinho in charge is trophies; and all trophies are important to the Portuguese regardless of the look and tournament.
Jose Mourinho has set records, broken records and joined exclusive lists.
Mourinho is the first coach to win both the European Cup/UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League on multiple occasions.
Mourinho is only the third coach to win more than one major UEFA club competition twice apiece after Nereo Rocco and Sir Alex Ferguson.
Mourinho is the third coach to win the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League with two clubs: Giovanni Trapattoni (Internazionale 1977, Juventus 1991, 1993) and Rafael Benítez (Valencia 2004, Chelsea 2013).
At 54 years and 118 days old, Mourinho is the oldest coach to lift the trophy under the UEFA Europa League format. Benítez won it aged 53 years and 21 days with Chelsea in 2013.
He is one of the four managers to have won the Champions League with two different teams (Ernst Happel, Jupp Heynckes, Carlo Ancelotti are the others).
Jose Mourinho is one of the few managers to have won the league titles in four different European countries, we can go on and on but there are trophies missing in his cabinet and today he has a shot at ticking off one of the two.
His first attempt at claiming the cup ended in defeat against AC Milan in 2004 after he led Porto to the UEFA Cup title in 2003.
In 2005 he could have attempted at winning the title but he swapped Porto for Chelsea after leading the Portuguese giants to the Champions League title in 2004.
He could have had another chance in 2011 but he also left Inter Milan for Real Madrid after leading the Italian giants to the Champions League title in 2010 against all odds.
In 2013 upon his return to Chelsea, he played Bayern Munich for the title and he was very close to winning the UEFA Super Cup but Romelu Lukaku missed from the spot to hand to trophy to Pep Guardiola’s team.
Jose Mourinho may have tagged his team the underdog at the Philip II Arena on Monday:”The difference between the Champions League winner and the Europa League winner is obvious.
“The Europa League is difficult to win, there are lots of matches with lots of traveling, but it is not El Dorado for football players.
“The top quality is obviously in the Champions League, and when you get to the semi-finals you have four of the best five or six teams in Europe. So there is a difference of quality, but we believe that it is possible.”
But his former club would be making a mistake to think Jose Mourinho wouldn’t be giving the title his all.
Once again Jose Mourinho, Juan Mata which as both lost in the Super Cup twice would have another shot at winning the title this Wednesday.
Do you think Jose Mourinho will finally claim one of the two trophies missing in his cabinet today?
