Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho (L) chats with Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez before their Champions League Group G soccer match at Anfield, northern England September 28, 2005
It erupted again on Wednesday when Mourinho responded to comments from Benitez's wife with a stinging riposte of his own.
The two men actually found common ground when both arrived in English football in the summer of 2004, Mourinho at Chelsea and Benitez at Liverpool, but this collegiate atmosphere quickly degenerated amid the heat of competition. As Benitez observed in 2007: "We were good friends until Liverpool started winning, then he started changing his mind."
Here are some of the most famous flashpoints in their testy relationship.
September 2005: Benitez takes aim at Chelsea’s playing style following their Premier League title win. "To me, Arsenal played much better football two or three years ago. They won matches and were exciting to watch. Barcelona and Milan too. They create excitement so how can you say Chelsea are the best in the world?"
April 2006: Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 in an FA Cup semi-final and Mourinho claims: "Did the best team win? I don't think so. In a one-off game maybe they will surprise me and they can do it. In the Premiership the distance between the teams is 45 points over two seasons." Mourinho refuses to shake Benitez’s hand, and repeated the snub at the Community Shield in the same year.
April 2008: Seven months after walking out on Chelsea, Mourinho says in a fiery interview: "How many championships has Benitez won since he joined Liverpool? None. And how many names were suggested by the Press to replace him? None.”
Summer 2010: Upon taking charge of Inter, Benitez tells the press: "There’s the coaches, first Mancini, then Mourinho and now me, and I hope to win more than them. We could win six trophies this season.” Mourinho’s response? "One thing is for certain. Benitez won't do better than me. Another thing is also true that should he lift the Intercontinental Cup, he will have only won two games compared to my 13. Therefore it will be my trophy and not his."
December 2010: After Benitez does win the Club World Cup with Inter… "I expected at least a thank you for the success that I gave him. Ask all the Inter fans what they think of me and him."
July 2013: Just months after Benitez won the Europa League for Chelsea, new boss Jose Mourinho comments: "I don't want to win the Europa League. It would be a big disappointment for me. I don't want my players to feel the Europa League is our competition."
March 2014: Benitez discusses his rival’s European record… “Mourinho talks a lot about a lot of people, but I prefer to talk about facts. At Liverpool, with a squad half of the value of Chelsea, we twice knocked his Chelsea side out of the Champions League. Later, with the most expensive squad at Real Madrid, he did nothing in the Champions League. Now he says if there is an offer of hundreds of millions for Hazard and Oscar, maybe he can build a strong squad to win something."
No comments:
Post a Comment