Tue 26 November 2019, 23:52
Tottenham HotspurJob done for Jose Mourinho. Jose’s first game as our Head Coach in the new stadium was nothing short of spectacular as we came from 2-0 down to topple Olympiacos 4-2 and book our place in the knockout stage of the Champions League with a game to spare.
Taking charge of his 148th game in the Champions League, Jose found himself in unfamiliar territory as we trailed 2-0 after just 18 minutes. He acted swiftly, brought on Christian Eriksen on the half-hour and after Dele crucially pulled a goal back just before the break, we powered home in the second half with a double from Harry Kane and a lovely strike from Serge Aurier.
We will now complete our Group B campaign at Bayern Munich – who made it five out of five with a 6-0 win against Crvena zvezda (Red Star) – in Matchday Six on 11 December.
Half-time was calm, everybody was calm. We spoke about aspects, made a few tactical touches and the boys were fantastic
“I want better,” stated Jose. “I want better than the first half, especially I want better from the resilience point of view, self-esteem, self-confidence, nothing can hurt us.
“I always tell my teams when they are strong, it doesn’t matter what happens, nothing can affect your self-esteem. It did affect us. The first half was difficult. After that, they showed the other side and the second half, come on, we beat them 3-0 in the second half and it could be four, five nil. We dominated totally.
“That is only possible with quality players but also players with a great mental side and a great desire to do it. The boys are happy that we’ve qualified.”
It was suggested to Jose that the players could take great confidence from turning around that 2-0 deficit. “It’s great,” he said. “We had almost the opposite situation at West Ham where we were winning comfortably (3-0 up, won 3-2) and then in the last period, we were a little in trouble.
“Half-time was calm, everybody was calm. We spoke about aspects, made a few tactical touches and the boys were fantastic.
“It’s always a great feeling for the coach when you play people who were on the bench and they come to the game and they do something positive for you, not just because it looks like you made the right changes, but also because it shows that the players are committed, they want to help and it doesn’t matter if they start or they are on the bench, so it was a very positive feeling for us.”
As for getting the job done, Jose added: “It was important. I knew the draw was enough and with a draw we’d qualify but the way we started the second half I felt it wasn’t about controlling the emotions or controlling the point we needed to qualify, it was about letting the game fly and letting the boys kill the game like we did.”
