Sevilla will be favourites, but it would be a mistake to rule out Mourinho’s Roma, who have won their previous five European finals. The 60-year-old coach is a born winner and his trophy chase remains as strong as ever.
Mourinho, who was never shy, even claimed that he was now a more accomplished coach than ever. The general consensus among pundits is that Mourinho is something of a dinosaur in the modern era. It compares itself to good wine, which only gets better with age.
Mourinho has always won the finals, he has 5 European trophies in total.
Conference League (Roma, 2021-22)
Mourinho became the first person to reach a European final with four different clubs, facing Roma in the Conference League main tie last year. The Italian club had never won a European Cup before, but that all changed with the arrival of Mourinho.
Roma beat Feyenoord 1-0 thanks to a precise strike from Nicolo Zaniolo in the 32nd minute.
Mourinho was moved to tears at the final whistle, which came as a surprise to some given the Conference League’s status as a third-tier trophy. Winning the competition seemed unlikely when Roma lost 1-6 to Bodo/Glimt in the group stage, but the Italians bounced back from that loss and edged out the Norwegian side. Then Mourinho’s wards beat Vitesse in the Round of 16, then took revenge on Bodo/Glimt in the quarter-finals and beat Leicester in the semi-finals.
Roma had a brighter squad than any of their Conference League opponents, but the players still needed to prove themselves and act with discipline to do their job well. Mourinho has instilled a winning mentality in a success-starved club. The Romans wouldn’t have reached the Europa League finalists without a special night in Albania 12 months ago.
Europa League (Manchester United, 2016-17)
Mourinho’s two and a half years as Manchester United manager have been very mixed. His pragmatic style of play did not sit well with fans and his departure eventually came after publicly criticizing a number of his players.
However, he became the first manager in club history to win two major titles in his debut season. Manchester United won the FA Cup in 2016/17 and then reached the Europa League final for the first time.
It must be said that the British had a favorable draw. They finished second to Fenerbahce in their group and beat Saint-Étienne 4-0 on aggregate in the first round of the play-off. Then Manchester United knocked out Russian clubs Rostov, Anderlecht and Celta, with each club beaten in just two games by a difference of 1 goal. Then, in the final in Stockholm, Mourinho’s team met the brilliant youth of Ajax. And Mourinho made sure experience was the deciding factor.
Ajax took nearly three times as many shots as Manchester United but lost 2-0 to Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. They executed Mourinho’s game plan perfectly. A real master class of Portuguese.
UEFA Cup (Porto, 2002-03)
Mourinho began his coaching career as an assistant at Barcelona under Sir Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal before briefly taking charge of Benfica and Leiria. He was completely unknown to the football world when he was appointed Porto’s new manager in January 2002.
Porto were fifth in the Primeira Liga after joining Dragao, but Mourinho led the club to bronze medals and a UEFA Cup berth after a 15-match unbeaten streak. Mourinho then promised that he would make Porto champions next year.
He delivered on that promise in spectacular fashion as Porto set a new points record on their way to winning the Portuguese league and edged out Benfica. Porto also won the Portuguese Cup and reached the UEFA Cup final. Martin O’Neill’s Celtic were on their way to the trophy.
In the final, the teams exchanged two goals in the 45th to 57th minute for Porto, Derlei and Dmitry Alenichev scoring, while Henrik Larsson netted a brace for Celtic. The match went into extra time and in the 115th minute Brazilian striker Derlei broke the hearts of the Scottish fans by scoring the winning goal.
Champions League (Porto, 2003-04)
The treble in 2002-03 is Mourinho’s incredible feat, but his second season at Porto was nothing short of a miracle. The Dragons retain the title of champion and then surprise all of Europe.
Porto entered a difficult group with Real Madrid, Marseille and Partizan Belgrade. The Portuguese drew against Partizan in the first round before being beaten 1-3 at home by Real Madrid, but a 3-2 victory over Marseille in France proved to be a turning point.
Mourinho’s side beat Marseille and Partizan at home to reach the round of 16 and ended their group schedule with an impressive 1-1 draw against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu. The next in the 1/8 finals was Manchester United.
Benny McCarthy scored a brace against Manchester United at the Dragao to give Porto a 2-1 win. In the second leg at Old Trafford, Paul Scholes put United ahead and that was enough for the English to reach the quarter-finals on away goals, but then there was a shock Costinha goal in the 90th minute.
Manchester United goalkeeper Tim Howard parried a long-range free kick from McCarthy badly in front of him, and Costinha played the rebound.
The Portuguese champions then beat Lyon in the quarter-finals without too many problems and, thanks to Derlei’s only goal from the penalty spot, eliminated Deportivo in the semi-finals. In the final, Porto met Monaco, who had previously beaten Real and Chelsea in spectacular style, but the fight didn’t work out in the main game of the tournament.
Porto won 3-0 and a week later Mourinho left for Chelsea as a club legend.
It’s safe to say that no other manager could have achieved what Mourinho did at Porto in such a short time. It was the dawn of “Special”.
Champions League (Inter, 2009-10)
Mourinho made his mark at Chelsea by winning two Premier League titles in three years, but was sacked due to a decline in results at the start of the 2007-08 season. The following year, he took up a new challenge in Italy by replacing Roberto Mancini at Inter.
The Nerazzurri won a fourth consecutive Scudetto in Mourinho’s first season but he was not invited in order to dominate domestically. Inter owner Massimo Moratti wanted to win the Champions League.
Manchester United knocked out Inter in the round of 16 of the 2008-09 season. But a year later, Mourinho came back and won.
Inter lost stars like Adriano, Hernán Crespo and Luis Figo, but Mourinho added Diego Milito, Thiago Motta and Wesley Sneijder to their ranks ahead of his second season in Italy. Inter had a poor start to the Champions League group stage, drawing the first three matches with Barcelona, Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Kyiv. Then there was a defeat for the Catalans and in the sixth round Inter had only 6 points, everything was decided by the match with Rubin at home, which the Italians won 2-0 and qualified for the playoffs from second place.
In the 1/8 final, Mourinho was waiting for his former club Chelsea. Inter beat the Blues at San Siro and Stamford Bridge to advance to the quarter-finals, where they were stronger than CSKA Moscow.
In the semi-finals, Inter faced Barcelona again and few expected the Italians to give them much trouble after the group stage fixtures.
But Mourinho believed in his team. Pedro gave Barcelona the lead early in the first leg at the San Siro, but Inter put on a superb performance, joining the game and winning it 3-1 after goals from Sneijder, Maicon and Milito.
Inter showed even greater resilience in the second leg at Camp Nou as the Italians had to play for over an hour after Motta was sent off.
Gerard Pique scored a goal only at the end of the match, Mourinho’s wards kept the desired score and reached the final.
Inter then kept their cool and beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final at the Santiago Bernabeu. Diego Milito scored two brilliant goals. As a result, the Nerazzurri became the first Italian team in history to achieve the treble, as Mourinho also led Inter to another Serie A title and the Coppa Italia.
No season epitomizes Mourinho better than 2009-10. It was a high for him and for Inter, who hope to show the same spirit in the Champions League final against Manchester City on June 10.
Vyacheslav Gorbachev, Athletistic
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Source: Sport
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
