Prior to Chelsea’s final UEFA Champions League clash against Steaua Bucharest at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, Coach Jose Mourinho revealed that he’s not confident theBlues are strong enough to win the competition this season. Chelsea, which has already qualified for the Round of 16, is currently first-place in Group E, one point ahead of second-place Schalke andtwo points ahead of third-place FC Basel.
“I think our chances this season, which is my first season, are not compatible with the chances other clubs have,” Mourinho said during his pre-gamepress conference. “I think other clubs have completely different stabilities, squads, evolution of the team, to be considered the favorites to win the competition. If you reach the quarter-final,which is the next step, I used to say every team has a chance to win it, but in my analysis, I think we are not considered one of the favorites to win the competition.” The Portuguese added thathe considers usual suspects Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid to be the competition’s favorites, followed by the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid andChelsea.
When asked about his own team’s “lack of stability” across all competitions this season, Mourinho once again refused to blame his defense, despite Chelsea concedingsix goals in its last two Premier League games. He insisted that the way his team plays, it must score more goals to kill teams off. “It’s much more difficult to play offensive, it’s muchmore difficult to play creative, it’s much more difficult to play dynamic in the team, in the positions,” he said. “The easiest thing to do in football is to organize a team to playdefensively. … We are creating a lot, we are playing very, very nice football. We have to kill opponents, we have to score goals.”