Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho expects Paris Saint Germain to win their first ever Champions League title with their array of stars ‘from another world’ when they face five-time champions Bayern Munich in the final of the 2019/2020 edition at the Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, on Sunday.
Mourinho, a two-time Champions League winner – with FC Porto in 2004 and with Inter Milan in 2010, is aghast at the inability of PSG to win the Champions League in recent years despite the huge investment made in playing personnel by the owners, Qatar Sports Investments.
Three coaches have failed to deliver the top European club football silverware at PSG in the period Mourinho has reviewed.
Laurent Blanc, nicknamed ‘The President’ due to his leadership skills, couldn’t lead PSG to Champions League glory despite winning three Ligue 1 titles and other domestic trophies. Unai Emery who took over from him in 2016 was sacked in 2018 for failing to guide the side beyond the Champions League Round of 16 despite winning the domestic treble.
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The ball is currently on Thomas Tuchel’s court. And having reached the final, the expectation is high, for him to add the Champions League title to his domestic deliveries that include two Ligue 1 titles.
PSG manager, Thomas Tuchel
“I think it is a failure that they didn’t win it in the two seasons before because for five or six years the investment is crazy, the list of top players that is there is incredible,” Mourinho said in an interview with DAZN, reported by Msn Sports.
“For how many seasons Thiago Silva is there, Marquinhos is there, and then all the big guys, bra [Zlatan lbrahimovic], [Edinson] Cavani, Neymar, Kylian] Mbappe.
“It’s, of course, their dream and for the first time they arrive in this kind of situation and this is the kind of game where these guys normally flourish, even if I think that as a
team they are nothing from another world, these are players from another world.”
This season’s Champions League returned from a break induced by Covid-19 pandemic with modification – from a two-legged to a single leg format in the knockout stages. The Tottenham boss differs from people who have suggested continuation of the single leg system post-Covid-19.
“You have to be very strong to play two legs and to play with the mental side of it. I think the one leg is better for the outsider, if you are an outsider you play a single match and anything can happen, but I like the big pressure of the two legs,” the Portuguese said.
“And it also measures your resilience because you play the semi-final and two or three days later you have a big match in your domestic league, and you have to cope with all these things.
“You have to make big decisions and across the season as a whole, I prefer the double leg.”
