Prior to their Round of 16 first leg against Paris Saint-Germain, Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho disagreed on the media's favorite teams to win the UEFA Champions League. "The Special One" referred that in this tournament, it's not a certainty that the so-called front runners will end up winning.
"During this stage of the competition, you have to consider every team has a fighting chance to win. The UEFA Champions League usually stores quite a few surprises. If you look back ten years, you should know that at least half of the teams that won were not favorites when the tournament began," Mourinho stated.
Chelsea's boss confirmed Diego Costa will start for his team against Paris Saint-Germain, even though he could not play for the Blues in their three most recent games due to a ban.
"It's not good for a footballer to go and play in a UEFA Champions League match after not being available for the past three games. But Costa's absence allowed Remy and Drogba to enjoy more minutes on the pitch, making themselves more suitable to play if we need them to," Mou added.
Mourinho also disregarded any advantage his team may have over Les Parisiens, since the French club played three games last week and his side had the entire week to prepare for this game.
"It's not relevant. When the French league stopped for Christmas break, we had five games in a two-week span, so don't come and tell me all about back-to-back games. Every league has its own way of programming the games, and England is quite special on that matter," the Portuguese said.
Finally, the former Real Madrid and Inter Milan boss denied his team has an advantage over PSG after eliminating them, since both clubs changed withing the course of this year.
