Chelsea fans rubbed salted into their old idol’s wounds by chanting “You’re not special any more” at the manager who once dubbed himself “the special one”.
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The Championship strugglers matched United for much of the encounter, and Mourinho said he was impressed with his players’ attitude, with the Portuguese saying his side could have easily lost the game if they did not apply themselves correctly.
“If I lose, I lose because the opponent was better or that we didn’t play well but I am not going to throw it away and go to Blackburn with that respect”.
“We’re going to fight for the FA Cup, but the League Cup is the one we have a 50% possibility to win”.
The Football Association announced last May that quarter-final replays would be scrapped, reverting to a sudden-death format in a bid to ease English football’s congested fixture list.
Mourinho was equally keen to point out how crowded United’s schedule is, with a Europa League campaign ongoing, an EFL Cup final appearance on the horizon and the battle for fourth place intensifying.
United substitutes Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic combined for the decisive goal, with the latter producing superb skill to finish.
‘And when he is on the pitch again he has to try to give me that step by step because he is still only a young player. They were fantastic. Next time we see them will be Wembley’.
“Everyone knows they are quality players and they did what their team needed to do”. “Sometimes you have hard matches because you make it hard for yourself”.
Pogba lofted a brilliant pass over the hosts’ defence from just inside the Blackburn half and picked out the run of Ibrahimovic, who brought it down and calmly placed his effort into the bottom-right corner.
The Blackburn manager, Owen Coyle, was happy with his side’s display and hopes it will provide confidence in their attempt to avoid relegation. But it wont be easy, there are eight strong teams with great surprise.
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I think in a couple of years you will realise he was cheap.
