What We're Reading
Mourinho Calls for 'Mental Aggression' Against Dortmund
- ESPN FC, Monday, April 29, 2013 1:09 PM
Jose Mourinho sounded cautious about Real Madrid’s chances of overcoming the 4-1 deficit it faces going into the UEFA Champions League semifinal second-leg against Borussia
Dortmund at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday, saying that “everything is possible,” but an historic remontada (comeback) would only happen if his players are focused and
play their usual game.
"We will go out to play, and try and get in front," Mourinho said during the pre-game press conference. "If we are 1-0 up, we need two goals to win. We must go
minute-by-minute, goal-by-goal, until the last minute of the game. We must first try to win the game, then if we are ahead, try and score more and see if we can make the final. Football is football,
and everything is possible."
He added that his team needs to show more mental aggression: "We are so pure and so innocent and so naive, that [Dortmund striker Robert]
Lewandowski scored four times and we did not even foul him," he said. "You play a game for 90 minutes, and there is no foul on a player who scores four. [Cristiano] Ronaldo
was fouled four or five times. You must be concentrated, with mental aggression, and we must be more a team like that."
Mourinho added that Ronaldo would be included in the starting lineup,
despite earlier rumors that he would be too injured to play after sitting out Saturday’s 2-1 win away to Atletico in the Madrid derby.
