Jose's verdict on Stoke

Jose Mourinho felt we thoroughly deserved our place in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after a dominant performance at Stoke City on Wednesday night.

We were in complete control and 1-0 up when the home side rocked us by scoring an equaliser with their first attempt on 53 minutes as Jordon Thompson levelled Gareth Bale’s clever first half header.

That sparked Stoke’s best spell, but we took a grip back on proceedings, Heung-Min Son had a goal chalked off for offside, Ben Davies fired us ahead from 25 yards on 70 minutes and Harry Kane put the issue beyond doubt with a piledriver into the roof of the net 10 minutes later.

We will now take on Brentford at home in the semi-finals (week commencing 4 January, details TBC) with a Manchester derby, United hosting City, in the other tie.

Jose said: “In the first half, I don’t remember them having a corner, a shot, we were totally in control but not intense enough to kill the game.

“In the second half their goal was a transition from a ball that we lost, a ball that could end in 2-0, we lose it and then in the transition they score and from there the game is open, because of course a draw would be a good result for them to take the game to the gamble of penalties, but not a good result for us, of course.

“But I believe that the boys did okay. Erik Lamela, Moussa Sissoko, when they came on, they gave us some more intensity, some more dynamic both with the ball and also without the ball we pressed much faster and much higher, so the second goal came and the third goal killed the game, so job done.

“They are a team of giants, really, that out of nothing they can put the ball in the box, and they have a corner or lateral free-kick and create you situations. We managed to keep them very far from these situations for the majority of the time, but of course the risk will be always there and the 3-1 killed the game. And we deserved it, we totally deserved it.”

Jose on Spurs TV