What We're Reading
Mourinho Accuses Suarez of Diving
- BBC Sport, Monday, December 30, 2013 3:40 PM
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho believes that Luis Suarez should have received a yellow card for diving in the penalty box during the Blues’ 2-1 win against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The Uruguayan was chasing Cesar Azpilicueta, who had won the ball, when his progress appeared to be impeded by a Samuel Eto’o challenge. The incident occurred in the closing stages of the game with Chelsea leading 2-1 on the back of first-half goals from Eden Hazard and Eto’o after Reds defender Martin Skrtel had opened the scoring in the 4th minute.
"It is not a tackle,” Mourinho said of Eto’o’s challenge on Suarez. “Suarez lost the duel with Azpilicueta, who has the ball and is leaving the box," said Mourinho. "Now he is doing an acrobatic swimming pool jump to try to get a penalty." The Portuguese added: “I'm not English or British but I feel I have also responsibility in defending some values in this football. One of the things that we have good is that we don't like people with simulations.”
Mourinho went on to applaud both Suarez and Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers for the apparent change in the player’s behavior, which in the past led to a series of lengthy bans. Nevertheless, the former Real Madrid coach said: "But when the situation is like this and you are losing comes the nature of the player. The wild nature of the player or the cultural nature of the player. And culturally people from that area, they like it [diving]. But it is not only that area. There is also a corner in Europe that I belong to where they also like it."
Rodgers, meanwhile, believes that match-winner Eto’o should have been sent off for the 3rd-minute challenge on Jordan Henderson that led to the free kick from which Skrtel scored. "He [Eto'o] should've been sent off," said Rodgers. "I know we scored from it, but that was a wild challenge, where he's raked down his knee and down his shin and didn't even get a yellow card."
