Jose Mourinho spoke to the press at Sevilla’s Sanchez Pizjuan stadium on Tuesday evening
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, Feb 21 – Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes it’s an important step to make the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, but he is calm ahead of the Sevilla clash.
The Red Devils will travel to Spain for the first leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesday, and Mourinho is eager to start well as he eyes a place in the quarter-finals.
“I’m calm and I think it’s the way to be,” he told MUTV. “It’s an important match, the first half of a knockout match if you want to say that. It’s important to be calm and to be ready for the dimension of the game, but controlling emotions because it’s a game where we have to be at the top of our level.
“It’s a really difficult stadium to play at because it’s a stadium where the fans love the knock-out competition. They are called a knockout team because they are normally very successful, in the domestic cups also and especially in the Europa League.
“The crowd plays the game, they don’t come here just to watch, they come here to play the game and put lots of pressure on the opponent and the referee’s decisions.
“I said before that any team which reaches the quarter-finals has a chance. I never thought I was going to win it with Inter or Porto before reaching the quarter-finals and it’s when you reach the quarter finals that you have the feeling that anything can happen.
“Nothing will change, the dynamic is nothing will change. The normal tendencies of some clubs are in this moment more ready to win it. But I think when you reach the quarter-finals, that’s when any team can feel that anything can happen. So I think this step from going to the last 16 to eight teams is always an important step.”
